NEW YORK. Convinced that Illinois Senator Barack Obama will have withdrawn U.S. troops from Iraq, ended global warming and reduced average health care premiums by $2,500 per household during his first term as president, media pundits have moved on from the 2008 election to consider the best course for his second term, which will begin in 2013.
Andrew Sullivan
“He could cure AIDS, or maybe heartbreak of psoriasis,” said Andrew Sullivan, a blogger with dry, itchy skin. “I don’t think he should spread himself too thin, but teenage acne continues to be a problem as well.”
Thomas Oliphant
Former Boston Globe columnist Thomas Oliphant, a frequent guest on PBS’s “The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer” said “I’d like to see him reach out to Cuba, where our foreign policy has been held hostage by tacky expatriates. He could walk on water to get there, which would be a really dramatic gesture.”
Eleanor Clift
Eleanor Clift, a contributing editor for Newsweek magazine, said she’d like to see President Obama focus more on women’s issues in his second term. “I have hot flashes and terrible migraine headaches,” she said. “I’ve tried everything, from prescription drugs to yoga. Senator Obama is the only realistic solution on this and so many other issues.”
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain, down seven points in most polls, said it was too early to concede a second term to the Illinois senator and that he would contest all fifty states he expects to lose this fall. “Don’t count me out,” McCain told dispirited supporters. “I haven’t even drafted my concession speech yet.”
