Run For President

ORLANDO, Fla. -- The 1996 U.S. presidential election is more than a year away, but already the names of hopeful candidates are becoming household words: Dole, Gramm, Bradley, Josh the Wonder Dog . . .Josh the Wonder Dog?The Pasadena, Md., mutt is one of 173 office-seekers who have officially filed to run for the country's top job. The list includes mainstream and obscure candidates, from the head of the Prohibitionist Party to north Florida developer Charles Collins, who is hoping to become the next Ross Perot.

With a productive General Assembly session behind him, Gov. Martin O'Malley said Wednesday that he will use the second half of the year to consider whether to run for the White House. "I need to be spending a lot more energy and time giving serious consideration and preparation to what - if anything - I might have to offer should I decide to run for president in 2016," O'Malley said during a wide-ranging interview with editors of The Baltimore Sun. O'Malley has typically demurred from answering questions about his potential candidacy, though it has been the subject of news articles and rampant political speculation both in and outside of Maryland.

IT IS bemusing to hear learned pundits discuss the prospects of a Colin Powell run for the presidency in 1996. The most popular scenario has the retired Army general leading a late and yet-to-be-defined third-party charge to save American voters from the limitations of a presumed Bill Clinton vs. Bob Dole (or Phil Gramm) choice.Mr. Powell has done nothing to encourage the speculation, remaining tight-lipped even about his political party affiliation. He has rebuffed the embrace of Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kan.

As a legal owner of a firearm in Maryland and a registered Democrat who voted for Gov. Martin O'Malley in the last two election cycles, I was initially supportive of the push following the Newtown tragedy for new gun legislation ("O'Malley to push stricter gun limits," Jan. 15). However, as time has passed since that tragedy, I have come to see that Governor O'Malley's push for new gun legislation is an attempt to use the Newtown tragedy as a way to further his own political career and cement his standing with the base of the Democratic Party in preparation for a run for President in 2016.

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware announced his candidacy for president yesterday, arguing that when the media buzz fades from Democratic candidates such as Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois, voters will rally around his foreign policy expertise. Saying that President Bush has "dug us in a very deep hole" in Iraq and at home, Biden, author of the lead Senate resolution disapproving of Bush's troop increase in Iraq, said he is the candidate best prepared to "step in and lead this country.

This is a response to our question of the month, concerning the prospects of a female presidency.WHY AREN'T more women running for president? It has been 16 years since Geraldine Ferraro was the Democratic candidate for vice president -- the first woman on a national ticket. Why can't the United States complete its evolution and elect someone who looks like 51 percent of the population?It's not such a novel idea. More than 20 countries have elected women presidents or prime ministers.Former American Red Cross president Elizabeth H. Dole is the lone woman among the likely candidates of both parties for 2000.

If Bill gets himself impeached here, he could run for president of Japan, Ireland or Israel and probably win.When Starr dimmed, Sam Dashed.Cecil County held a slow youth for murder months after DNA exonerated the guy, which speaks ill of either DNA or forced confessions and worse of Cecil County.Sammy Sosa for mayor of Chicago!Pub Date: 11/23/98

No one knows for which party Colin Powell will run for president in 1996, but it won't be the Democrats.John Arnick will get his old seat back. He owns it, doesn't he?If the O's get any worse, you might be able to get a ticket.

Tex McCrary, 92, a legendary New York publicist who popularized the talk-show format and helped persuade Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower to run for president, died Tuesday. Mr. McCrary and his second wife, actress-model Jinx Falkenburg had two radio talk shows and a television show, sometimes broadcasting their interviews with celebrities from the Waldorf-Astoria hotel. Mr. McCrary persuaded Eisenhower to run for president by staging a huge public rally in Madison Square Garden at which thousands of supporters chanted "We want Ike" and waved "I Like Ike" signs.

THE SUSPICION lingers that William Donald Schaefer, far from having lost his marbles, knows exactly what he is about -- and that he is about to run for president.Note that the governor is getting national publicity these days, and it's publicity so sweet that Schaefer and his handlers couldn't buy it at any price. The latest is a two-page spread in Insight, the national news magazine published by the Washington Times. Under the headline "Governor Builds a Reputation as Pee-wee Herman of Politics," there's a picture of a smiling Schaefer, arms outstretched as though parting the Red Sea."

Republican presidential hopeful Rick Perry said in a speech at the Christian-based Liberty University last week that he believes God has a plan for everyone, and God's plan for him will be revealed in time. Michele Bachmann, according to a finely wrought profile in The New Yorker, believes in Dominionism - that the Bible requires that Christians lead all secular institutions, shepherding them until Christ returns. Candidates Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman are Mormon, and neither one has talked at length about his faith.

The former owner of the Senator Theatre declared his candidacy Thursday for president of the Baltimore City Council, saying he wants to lead the body he called "a sorry crew. " Tom Kiefaber, who lost the historic theater founded by his grandfather to foreclosure last year, criticized city leaders and the local news media, and compared his candidacy to the "Arab Spring" that is prompting protests in the Middle East. Borrowing an analogy from a film he screened frequently at the Senator, Kiefaber likened the council president's office to "that ventilation shaft on the Death Star in 'Star Wars' that they just forgot about.

Sarah Palin made a surprise appearance Monday in Baltimore — and took the opportunity of a visit to Fort McHenry to knock the president. President Barack Obama, speaking earlier during a Memorial Day service at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, had said it was his "most solemn responsibility as president to serve as commander-in-chief of one of the finest fighting forces in the world. " Palin, asked in Baltimore for her thoughts on U.S. policy in Afghanistan, responded by upbraiding Obama.

So Donald Trump is seriously considering a run for president in 2012 as a republican and I, for one, am strenuously encouraging him to do so. Imagine the hilarity and endless bombast that would accompany a Trump presidency: Trump firing the Senate. Trump getting in a shouting match with the United Nations. Trump putting a huge photo of his smiling face on the Washington monument.  The possibilities are endless. The Donald hasn't wasted any time getting the pomposity started. In an ABC News interview posted last night, Trump took on President Obama, House Speaker Boehner, Somalian pirates, and, of course, somehow found some time to compliment himself.

A few hours before Joseph Woah-Tee made a fatal trip early Sunday to his Pen Lucy community center, the Liberian educator and activist met with a childhood friend to discuss making another run at his native country's presidency. Woah-Tee, 60, ran a determined campaign for Liberia's top political post from his Baltimore home in 2005, finishing 14th out of 22 candidates despite having lived in Baltimore since 1978. Woah-Tee was gearing up to try again in 2011. "He was planning for Liberia, setting up plans for his country," said Jalo Whyte, who knew Woah-Tee for 50 years.

YORK, Pa. - It was an entrance almost worthy of Madonna. As the lights went down inside the Toyota Arena late yesterday afternoon and spotlights swept the crowd of more than 5,000, the Straight Talk Express bus pulled directly into the hall. Out stepped the Republican nominee for vice president, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, to rousing cheers.

SLATS GROBNIK shook his head, then jabbed at the newspaper and said:"Do you understand what Mario Cuomo is talking about?"On what subject?"When he says that he's not making any plans to make any plans to run for president."Oh, that's simple enough. It means that reporters asked him if he's planning to run, and he said he has no plans. Then some reporter, believing himself clever, asked if he had any plans to make plans to run for president, and Cuomo said, no, he wasn't making any plans to make any plans.

ONE BY one, the Democrats are saying "no thanks" to the chance to run for president.Can you blame them?President Bush remains more popular than ever, and there is really no organized opposition to his election bid. Polls show Bush winning a landslide against any potential Democratic candidate.The Democrats have been meeting a lot lately and seem to have settled on a strategy against the Bush-Quayle re-election ticket. That strategy is to hit the Republicans hard on domestic issues, namely because the Bush administration continues to have one foreign policy success after another.

If former House Speaker Newt Gingrich decides to run for president, he won't be announcing it soon. "I think it is absurd to have people out here running around raising money, arguing about politics for an entire year ... to finally get sworn in January 2009," Gingrich said last night before addressing a crowd of about 1,000 at Goucher College in Towson. "I think that's just a dumb way to spend your life. And that's a lot of money. It's a consultant-full employment campaign that has nothing to do with the average American."

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware announced his candidacy for president yesterday, arguing that when the media buzz fades from Democratic candidates such as Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois, voters will rally around his foreign policy expertise. Saying that President Bush has "dug us in a very deep hole" in Iraq and at home, Biden, author of the lead Senate resolution disapproving of Bush's troop increase in Iraq, said he is the candidate best prepared to "step in and lead this country.