US President Barack Obama’s second term is coming to an end and the parties are preparing for the 2016 presidential race of. Democrats and Republicans are trying to organize their respective electoral machines for the primaries to be held at the end of the year.
On the Democratic side two possible candidates are still playing coy about their decisions. Senator Elizabeth Warren, a former academic at Harvard, and former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Warren tends to appeal to highly educated people further on the left, whereas the former First Lady draws her support from more centrist middle class.
Conversely, Republicans already have three possible candidates. The first is Jeb Bush, who would be the third of the family to run in a presidential race; Mitt Romney, the defeated candidate of 2012; and Chris Christie, Governor of New Jersey, considered an outsider. There are many differences among the three: Romney, as was clear in 2012, lacks charisma, but he is solid; Jeb Bush has the name, but that name may be tarnished; and Christie, who is a feisty northeasterner, is perhaps too feisty.
Domestic issues for the campaign will center on immigration and middle-class wages. In the foreign policy arena they will deal with the threat of Islamic terrorism all over the world, Russia’s aggressive moves with its neighbors, and falling oil prices. It will certainly be an interesting – and long – campaign.