Candidates eyeing 2008 presidency
Now the result of the 2004 election is finally confirmed, the possible candidates for the 2008 race will begin jockeying for position.
Re-elected President George Bush will leave office after his second four-year term, clearing the way for a straight fight between a Republican and a Democrat.
One of the most widely touted possible Democratic candidates is the former First Lady Hillary Clinton.
If successful, she would become the first woman president of the United States.
Some political pundits believe she never thought Massachusetts Senator John Kerry could beat Mr Bush this time around, and so held off until 2008 to have a clear run.
But Mrs Clinton, 57, a Senator for New York, is far from being the only Democrat in the running.
Mr Kerry’s running mate, Senator John Edwards, 51, is likely to have another shot at the top job.
Some pundits believe the Democrats would not gamble on backing Mrs Clinton as their official candidate.
She has been called a divisive politician, and there are many who still believe America is not ready for a woman president.
Another one to watch is Barack Obama, the newly-elected Senator for Illinois.
Victory made him only the fifth black US senator in history – and one of the nation’s brightest political stars.
But he would be considered an outside hope. He is only 43 and a liberal, a tag which Mr Bush used to successfully batter Mr Kerry.
On the Republican side, former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani has been mentioned as a contender.
Mr Giuliani, 60, shot to national and international prominence for his leadership in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks.
He has since moved into the lucrative private sector and would have to decie whether he wants to give that up for a stressful White House battle and then the presidency.
The least likely – but most fascinating – Republican candidate would be action hero turned movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The Austrian-born Terminator star said recently he would like to run for the White House.
But that would need an amendment to the Constitution, which bans foreign-born citizens becoming president.
Schwarzenegger’s hopes that such an amendment being passed are slim. The chances of it being passed before 2008 are practically nil.
