Owens pondering run for presidency
I might run for president.
I’m just throwing that out there.
I haven’t even had time to form my “exploratory committee” yet.
I might get around to it, by the time I finish this column.
I do know, that if many more people plan to take a flying leap for the White House, by the time the first Republican debate rolls around in August, they might need to build a debate stage the size of a landing strip.
According to presidential-candidates.org, 15 Republicans have already declared their intentions to become president.
OK! I know thatTed Cruz, Rand Paul and Marco Rubio, all United States senators, have made their intentions be known for weeks.
But you probably didn’t know that Republicans Skip Andrews, Kerry Bowers, Dale Christensen, John Dummett, Jr., Mark Everson, Chris Hill, Michael Kinlaw and Michael Petyo have also officially announced their presidential intentions.
That’s probably because hardly anybody outside of their close friends and family members know who they are.
Not so for Republicans Dr. Ben Carson, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and ex-Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, who jumped into the presidential sweepstakes last week.
Fiorina and Carson will have a few problems getting elected, or even nominated. I’ll get to that in a few sentences.
Meanwhile, there are seven declared Democrats, and three who’ve formed “exploratory committees.”
And there are also 16 declared 3rd party, or independent candidates, so far.
Except for Democrats Hillary Clinton, the clear frontrunner, and Vermont’s U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, those other declared Democrats and Independents are mostly unknown.
Now to those problems involving Dr. Carson and Carly Fiorina. Neither of them have ever held public office.
In fact, Carson, a noted brain surgeon, boasts that he does not “want to be a politician.”
That’s not necessarily a positive.
Since 1948, of the 187 major-party presidential candidates, only 21 of them never held a state or federal office before they ran for president.
Only one, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, was actually elected.
A recent NBC/Wall Street Journal poll seems to indicate there is skepticism about presidential candidates who’ve never held a public office.
Or, as the poll asked respondents what they feel about, “A person who is not a politician and has no previous elected experience in government.”
Sixty-nine percent of the registered voters polled claimed they were “very uncomfortable,” or that they had “some reservations,” about non-officeholders.
So, while Republicans like Fiorina and Carson boast of having no governmental ties, the voting public might not be attracted to that kind of candidate.
Of course, the American public will have an ample opportunity to make their decisions based on the 11 planned Republican debates, and the six Democratic ones.
While the Republicans only have six presidential candidates of note now, there are sure to be more.
In 2008, there were as many as 10 Republicans, at one time, trying to out-conservative each other on debate nights.
That number dropped to nine candidates at one time during the run-up to the 2012 presidential election.
Democrats, in 2008, had eight candidates sharing debate-time, until Barack Obama became the last-candidate-standing.
I’m still considering my own chances.
First, that NBC/Wall Street Journal poll indicates that 66 percent of registered voters are “enthusiastic,” or are “comfortable” with an African American candidate.
For me that’s a plus.
I have four years of military service, and the polling data says 83 percent of registered voters are OK with that.
Even if I come up short in the voter’s eyes for never having held an elected office, or for never getting a college degree (63 percent negatives), I probably couldn’t do worse than some of the already declared candidates.
One of the little known Republicans I mentioned above, Skip Andrews, touts himself as an “Army child and business owner.”
The synopsis for his candidacy at presidential-candidates.org, says, “Few politicians are able to satisfy both a pro-legalization marijuana advocate and a staunch pro-lifer. Of course, this also means most would object to a majority of his platform.”
You know, I don’t think I could do worse than ole Skip Andrews.
Count me in – for now!
Edward A. Owens is a three-time Emmy Award winner and 20 year veteran of television news. E-mail him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net
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