The next president will be faced with an incredible job of cleaning up the mess that is our foriegn relations, and a whole new state department won't be enough.
Further, the financial ruin that is the American economy is not "hitting a soft patch" as I've currently heard it described. It is about to have it's outstanding debt called in.
These problems are not insurmountable, but they will require more bi-partisian support to fix than will be available to the next administration due to the current polarizing of the populus which is encouraged through such tactics as re-nominating 7 judges and demanding your party stand behind them.
The divisions which exist in Congress between the parties will not be healed in the next six years.
The next President, as I see it, will simply be the fall guy for all the failed policy moves of the last four years, and not much will be accomplished. (more drivel after fold)
For that reason, I think the candidate most supported by the Democratic Party in '08 should not be the one most likely to get into office (a strategy that really hasn't worked out well against Rove's candidates) but rather a Candidate who isn't afraid to lay out a progressive agenda.
I really liked Kucinich's platform in '04, but couldn't bring myself to vote for him even in the primaries because he spoke the truth to often, and had no shot.
The Democratic Party would be better of without the White House if we can take both houses of Congress. The same would be true for the Republicans in my opinion. We can then work on restoring Checks and balances for a few years and basically just keep the status quo as far as major policy overhauls go until the climate cools down a bit.
Let the Republican's run a Centrist against a true progressive with a publically announced agenda of helping the working class of America, and watch the pendulum swing.
