Tuesday, November 15, 2016

Who could be the first female president

We did not make history by electing the first female president in 2016.  Having experienced strong female leaders in my career, too many to mention, I have no doubt that a woman will one day win the presidency.  It will probably be soon.

Hillary Rodham Clinton just turned 69 years old.  If she were to run and get elected in 2020, she would become the oldest person to be elected president for the first time at age 73, beating Donald Trump by about 3 years and Ronald Reagan by just a few days longer than Trump.  Sooner or later, her age and health will catch up to her.  It is likely that Hillary will not run for political office again.

Here is a list of women who could, perhaps as soon as 2020, win the White House:

The governorship of a state is the most common path the the White House, here are the current female governors.  There are six currently serving, about half and half from each party.

Susana Martinez, Republican, New Mexico, term expires in 2019 and she is not eligible to run again
Mary Fallin, Republican, Oklahoma, term expires in 2019 and she is not eligible to run again
Kate Brown, Democrat, Oregon
Gina Raimondo, Democrat, Rhode Island
Nikki Haley, Republican, South Carolina, term expires in 2019 and she is not eligible to run again
Muriel Brewster, Democrat, DC, which has just voted to accept statehood, however it still needs to be approved by Congress and signed into law by the President.

The US Senate is a path that many have used to become the president.  Here is a list of female US Senators in the 115th Congress.

Lisa Murkowski, Republican, Alaska, just re-elected, term up in 2022
Diane Feinstein, Democrat, California, term up in 2018
Kamala Harris, Democrat, California, just elected, term up in 2022
Mazie Horono, Democrat, Hawaii, term up in 2018
Joni Ernst, Republican, Iowa, term up in 2020
Susan Collins, Republican, Maine, term up in 2020
Elizabeth Warren, Democrat, Massachusetts, term up in 2018
Debbie Stebenow, Democrat, Michigan, term up in 2018
Amy Klobuchar, Democrat, Minnesota, term up in 2018
Clair McCaskill, Democrat, Missouri, term up in 2018
Deb Fisher, Republican, Nebraska, term up in 2018
Maggie Hassan, Democrat, New Hampshire, just elected, term up in 2022
Jeane Shaheen, Democrat, New Hampshire, term up in 2020
Kirsten Gillibrand, Democrat, New York, term up in 2018
Heidi Heitkamp, Democrat, North Dakota, term up in 2018
Patty Murray, Democrat, Washington, just re-elected, term up in 2022
Maria Cantwell, Democrat, Washington, term up in 2018
Shelly Moore Capito, Republican, West Virginia
Tammy Baldwin, Democrat, Wisconsin, term up in 2018

Having a term in an off-year, such as after the 2018 mid-term election.  This will give that person two years to focus on the White House, without having another job to do.

List of female CEOs.  Now that Donald Trump has opened the door for a corporate CEO to become president, the next person to step through it might be a woman.  I do not know the political affiliation of any of these women.  These women are CEOs of Fortune 500 companies.

Mary Barra, General Motors (Possible Democrat)
Heather Bresch, Mylan, Inc (Democrat)
Ursula Burns, Xerox (Democrat)
Debra Cafaro, Ventas (Possible Democrat)
Susan Cameron, Reynolds (Possible Republican)
Safra Catz, Oracle (Possible Democrat)
Lynn Good, Duke Energy (Political Leanings Unknown)
Shira Goodman, Staples (Possible Democrat)
Tricia Griffith, The Progressive (Political Leanings Unknown)
Marilyn Hewson, Lockheed Martin (Possible Republican)
Vicki Hollub, Occidental Petroleum (Political Leanings Unknown)
Gracia Martore, TEGNA (Possible Democrat)
Marissa Mayer, Yahoo (Possible Democrat)
Beth Mooney, Key (Possible Republican)
Denise Morrison, Campbell Soup (Possible Democrat)
Indra Nooyi, Pepsico (Possible Democrat, but has been critical of policies of both parties.)
Phebe Novakovic, General Dynamics (Political Leanings Unknown)
Patricia Poppe, CMS Energy (Political Leanings Unknown)
Debra Reed, Sempra Energy (Possible Republican)
Barbara Rentler, Ross Stores (Political Leanings Unknown)
Virginia Rometty, IBM (Possible Democrat)
Irene Rosenfeld, Mondelez International (Political Leanings Unknown--Criticized by both political parties, likely a Libertarian.)
Meg Whitman, HP (Possible Republican)

Probably, the first female president in on one of the lists above  Many of these women, whether you like what they have accomplished or not, have accomplished as much or even much more that Hillary Rodham Clinton ever did.  They just do not have the name recognition right now.  Name recognition is why one of the above women have not yet run for the presidency.  Perhaps one of these women will get the name recognition they need to run in 2020.

Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Congratulations to President-Elect Donald Trump

As the Election of 2012 was beginning to ramp up, Donald J. Trump, a man who had no political experience was beginning to explore the idea of running for the presidency.  At that time, I wrote that he would divide the Republican party.  That turned out to be true in 2016.  Yes, in spite of that party division, and all other odds, Donald Trump succeeded to become the first person to became elected president who had neither served before in public office nor rose to the rank of Major General in the United States military.  If Trump is successful, he opens the doors for many with a background like his to run for this office in the future.  Perhaps the change the country needs.

I saw data in my office before I finished work for the day.  Exit polling in the evening was showing an interesting trend.  In my house were expecting a Clinton landslide, even though none of us voted for her.  However, leaked evening exit polls that I saw began to show that Trump had a chance in Ohio, Florida, North Carolina and even Pennsylvania.  It was beginning to look like Trump had a chance as returns began to come in.  If Trump could get two of those states, he may have a chance to win.  It turns out that about 3:00 ET, 1:00 MT, that Trump was declared the winner in Pennsylvania and the winner of the election after getting all of these states.

Trump did not win the traditional republican way...family values, points of light, etc.  He built a new coalition.  He gathered together people that both parties forgot and left behind.  Those whom the Democrats called deplorable and those whom Republicans simply ignored.  He knew something that others forgot, or didn't understand, and took advantage.

I won't go into all of the reasons why Trump won.  It will take academics years to understand what happened.  I do believe we just witnessed a counter-revolution.  I hope it remains peaceful.  It seems that his election has brought some unity to the Republican party, at least for now.

I will say that there is one thing I have learned.  I have to change my thinking.  It seems that too many of us think that there are only two kinds of people, those who think like I do and those who should think like I do.  That kind of thinking needs to change.  Not all problems are simple and mathematical and can be resolved with logic.  Some problems take a coalition of people who think very differently to solve.

Clinton may still win the popular vote.  However, keep in mind that as of now, instead of having one big election, we have 50 small ones.  This is only the 5th time in history that this will happen.  If Utah and Idaho had gone to McMullin, we would still be fighting this battle.  Instead, we get a quick and peaceful transition.  In a future election, it may be the Republicans that win the popular vote, with the Democrats winning the electoral college.  Remember, our government is a coalition, not a pure democracy.  Our founders wanted it that way.

Good luck with the new coalition, President Trump.