As of today there are seven who have announced officially as Candidates running for President of the United States. Only Hillary Clinton has announced herself as running on the Democrat side, will other Democrats try for the nomination or is she the only one? I do not count Bernie Sanders as a real Democrat; he is an Independent who has socialist leanings that caucuses with the Democrats. On the Republican side Mark Rubio, Paul Rand, Ted Cruz, Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina are officially running.

It seems that only a Progressive Democrat Liberal and a number of Right Wing Conservative Republicans are vying for the highest office in the land. Why is no one challenging Hillary for the nomination and is the Democratic Party only represented by the Left? What happened to the Moderates and the Right wing of the party, are they too afraid? Are they so marginalized by the Progressive members of the party that they are not being heard from or are they being ignored?

Has our choice for President come down to picking a Progressive Democrat or a Conservative Republican? Where are the others that represent the rest of America and why have we gotten into this situation? Let me start off by saying that I am a Moderate and our wonderful press do not seem to realize that there are people who are neither on the left or right politically. They tend to label people only as one or the other; a good example is our current President, President Obama is really a Moderate although a quite a few people think that he is a Liberal (Left) politician. In reality Moderates are less vocal than the Left or Right, yet they are the majority and by not making themselves heard we are ignored.

OK I vented a little and now back to the topic. What we have running is a former Secretary of State, three Senators, a Neurosurgeon and a former Business Executive. In other words, four who have some political experience and two who do not. Is not having political experience a plus or a minus in being President?

The President does have to be able to use his or hers political acumen to work with the Congress and Foreign political leaders. So how would a person who has no political experience fair in the highest office in the land? Not very well I would conjecture, for without the experience of having been in an elected office before becoming President they would not have the toolset required to do the job. And no I do not think that having been the CEO or President of a company would give you the necessary experience, while doing business does have a political component it is not the same thing as being in an elected office. We in New Jersey have had those with that experience elected to our state’s highest office and the missing political experience showed. Resulting in an ineffective governor, to the dismay of those who elected him and also those politicians he had to work with.

Here is more information on those declared and other possible candidates.

I am sure that others will throw their hat into the run for the Presidency in the near future. Let us all hope that a more balanced set of candidates decides to run. But most of all remember to be part of the democratic process and vote for the candidate of your choice when election time comes around.

That is my opinion- Jumpin Jersey Mike