A Republican will win the White House in 2016

With yesterday’s tip-toeing into state politics and the Republicans running the UNC BOG their way, and with President Obama making his annual State of the Union political statement tonight, let’s dive into shallow water about the next election cycle. We just finished the 2014 elections, but the politicians have turned to the 2016 national races: the Presidency, a third of the United States Senate, all of the seats in the House of Representatives.

The posturing for the next two years is obvious: The Democrats, especially the President, will work to regain the Senate and House while retaining the Presidency. The Republicans will seek to retain control of the House and Senate while taking the Presidency from the Democrats. Many observers and much of the educated electorate believe the Presidency is Hillary Clinton’s to lose. That is not necessarily the case. She may have a harder time winning than the assumption today.

President Obama will tell us tonight that we need more taxes from the rich to support programs of and by the government. The Republicans have already told us that during the Obama administration, the rich have gotten richer and the poor have gotten poorer and the middle class has expanded. Both sides are correct. If we indeed need to expand government, to keep Social Security solvent, to make sure Medicare continues to work without draining the Treasury coffers, to fill the potholes across America, and to repair other infrastructure, then, yes, more money is required. Mr. Obama will be asking for the money by raising taxes on the rich, and it will not be forthcoming from the Congress, the Republicans. Maybe there are other solutions to the continuing ills of the United States. The Republicans will tell us there are ways to “fix” everything but will not give us solid answers to “how.”

The saga of Washington DC and the federal government will continue to play out over the next two years, after which, in my humble opinion (the same one as yesterday when lauding the qualifications for Dr. Randy Woodson to be the President of the UNC system), the Republican candidate for President will be the next President and Congress will remain a GOP stronghold and with a super-majority in the Senate. Then the election cycle will begin again.

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stour (noun) [stoo r]: tumult; confusion