Hillary Rodham Clinton is the front-runner in the Democratic presidential primary, and Jeb Bush is a front-runner in the Republican one. And although there is a lifetime of politics between now and the next election, there's a good chance that, on Nov. 8, 2016, Americans will choose between a Bush and a Clinton for the second time in 25 years. We could have our third Bush presidency or another turn for the Clintons.
To many Americans, this is troubling. Last year, former First Lady Barbara Bush said that "there are more than two or three families that should run for high office in America." Sixty-nine percent of Americans agree with that statement, according to a 2014 poll from NBC News and the Wall Street Journal.
This March, in another NBC News/WSJ survey, 39 percent of voters said they would think more or somewhat more favorably of a candidate whose last name was not Bush or Clinton. Similarly, a majority said that electing Hillary Clinton or Jeb Bush would represent a return to the policies of the past.
There's no denying that the status quo — of a White House claimed by one or the other family — is unusual, and I won't criticize anyone disturbed by a pattern of "Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama, Bush" or "Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama, Clinton."
But I also don't think it's as bad as it looks.
Observers have called this a "dynastic" election. This headline from a January edition of the New York Times, is typical: "Are Two Dynasties Our Destiny?"
"Dynasty" might apply to the Bush family. Indeed, Jeb Bush, in his announcement speech, described himself as "a guy who met his first president on the day he was born and his second on the day he was brought home from the hospital," before declaring that "not a one of us (presidential candidates) deserves the job by right of resume, party, seniority, family or family narrative. It's nobody's turn."
But that term doesn't apply to the Clintons. Hillary Clinton neither came from a political family nor joined one. Instead, she entered politics as a partner to Bill, and after two decades as a political spouse, set out on her own career, first as a senator, then as a presidential candidate, then as a top diplomat, and now — again — as a presidential candidate.