The Bush-Clinton Tag Team Dynasty

In his Sunday Washington Post Magazine Rough Draft column She's No Lady, Joel Achenbach predicts that “the head of state will be a Bush or a Clinton until the end of time, or the year 2056, whichever comes first.” That’s a pretty bold prediction from the man that in June of 1992, called Al Gore, based on his environmental crusading, a potential candidate for 1996. A guess that was either 4 years off or 12 years off depending how you want to look at it. I wonder if a joint Clinton/Bush dynasty is even possible. The talent pool just isn’t that strong.

The presidency has two major procedural restrictions: You must be at least 35 years old (and native-born, sorry, Ah-nald) and you can only be elected twice.* Using those criteria, here is a potential timeline for the next 50 years of presidential elections.

	Hillary Rodham Clinton (2009-2017) Should the Junior Carpetbagger from New York wrest the nomination from Al “Save The Trees, They’re Like Family To Me” Gore, she would be the first spouse of a president ever elected to the White House, which I think would give her a much larger role in selecting interns. The ceremonial role of First Gentleman has yet to delineated. In Bill’s case, I think it would seriously impact his free-ticket cadging under the regulations governing gifts to elected officials.
	John Ellis "Jeb" Bush (2017-2025) I would really love to be the fly on the wall during the sibling rivalry argument that let Dubya run for prez before Jeb, particularly since Jeb is universally acknowledged as the “smart Bush”, which is like being known as the “sober Kennedy”. It's just not that high a bar. After the shenanigans in Florida during the 2000 vote counting fiasco, Jeb will be calling in all his chads to make sure he gets his turn.
	Chelsea Clinton (2025-2033) If you assume that Neil Bush and Roger Clinton are essentially unelectable, the torch has to be passed to the next generation. The two leading contenders would have to be Barbara Bush and Chelsea Clinton. Both have fancy-schmancy degrees (Yale and Stanford, respectively) and trouble occasionally holding their liquor. For the sake of argument, let’s give Chelsea first shot since she has seniority. Chelsea at the age of 44, would be the third youngest President and the third child (as well as first daughter) of a former President. As a bonus, with both Bill and Hillary as ex-Presidents, there would be some economy of scale for Secret Service protection.
	Barbara Bush (2033-2041) Barbara is the heir apparent to the Bush political dynasty since twin sister Jenna went to a party school and is following the educator track of her mother. Not that Barbara doesn’t know how to party. Barbara would be only the second grandkid of a former President (you have to go all the way back to Benjamin Harrison for the first). I predict Barb II having to slug it out with another potential legacy candidate, Karenna Gore Schiff. Perhaps Karenna would be a little savvier about electoral college vote counting than her dad, but since we are positing a Clinton/Bush tag team, Barbara gets the nod.
	George Prescott Bush (2041-2049) By this time, even the second generation is getting a little long in the tooth. By 2040, George P would be 64 which is still a youngster by presidential standards. Particularly valuable would be his Hispanic background. By all demographic predictions, thirty years from now a good deal of the electorate will habla Espanol, or at least have parents or grandparents that do. That would make this handsome nephew of Dubya a shoo-in. Of course, he too has those “youthful indiscretions” to contend with.
	Jeb Bush, Jr. (2049-2057) In order to make Joel’s prediction ring true, for the 2048 election, either the Clinton clan has to get fertile or the Bush’s have to dig a little deeper for tenable candidates. Based on their legal problems to date, I can’t possibly imagine either of Jeb’s other two kids getting elected dogcatcher, let alone President. Of the two, Jeb Jr has the best shot for overcoming his tarnished youth as an underage canoodler and boozer. After all, in the words of Hank Williams, Jr., he’s just carrying on a family tradition. Whether the substance abuse history of big sister Noelle is enough to weigh down his campaign remains to be seen.

In summary, I don’t hold a lot of faith in the dynasty theory of American politics. Just look at the Kennedys. It’s a maxim of fortunes, financial and political, that the third generation wastes away what the first generation earns. Consider that George W. Bush is the grandson of Senator Prescott Bush, and you can draw your own conclusions there as well.

*The 22nd Amendment is actually more complicated than that, but it doesn’t affect my dystopic future history.