I’m not sure why speculation about 2008 is frowned upon. A lot of people seem to find it unseemly so soon after this year’s election; others find it silly since it’s so far away. I look at it altogether differently. Candidates are clearly thinking about the ’08 race, so why should the rest of us pretend to be disinterested?
For Dems in particular, it’s even more straightforward: we don’t have the White House, we want the White House, so we speculate about what we have to do to get it back. Part of that, naturally, includes discussion about candidates.
For a variety of reasons, there were very few governors in the mix this year (in fact, there were no sitting governors at all), despite the success of Dem governors in recent cycles. The primary reason wasn’t an unqualified field, but rather a field with limited experience. The longest-serving Dem governor in America right now is Iowa’s Tom Vilsack — and he was elected in 1999. Many of the other presidential-caliber Dem governors whose names were bandied about — Richardson, Warner, Napolitano, Sebelius, Blagojevich, Bredesen, Rendell, Doyle — had two years of gubernatorial experience or less going into this year’s race.
In ’08, however, many of these same names will be experienced chief executives of key states. This year, four sitting senators ran for the Dem nomination. Next cycle, I’d expect nearly as many sitting governors to throw their hat in the ring.
And one of the names I want you to keep in mind is Mike Easley.
Mike Easley is a Democratic governor from the South, a winner of four statewide races in a largely conservative state, a former prosecutor, an education advocate, an ally of business and a NASCAR dad.
And to some Democrats growing wary of liberals from New England, he’s also a sight for sore eyes.
Several national newspapers and other political observers have speculated in the past week that Easley could be a potential Democratic candidate for president in 2008. They began looking at him after Election Day, when Democrats suffered losses across the country and in North Carolina while he won re-election with 55 percent of the vote.
Just to be clear, I mention this as a heads-up about a figure with little name-recognition outside his home state, not an endorsement. Easley has expressed virtually zero interest in the presidential race and hasn’t taken any steps that would-be candidates often make at this point.
But his qualifications and Red-state appeal make Easley intriguing. Dems had a very tough year in the South last week, including North Carolina where Bush cruised to an easy victory and Erskine Bowles came up short in a tough Senate race. Easley, meanwhile, won by 12 points in the same state on the same day.
Like I said, someone to keep an eye on.