Conjecture

 If you're a fan of Marvel comics, you may have stumbled upon their series titled "What If..." As the title suggests, the reader was given a hypothetical situation into which each issue would delve. One such example was "What if Spider Man joined the Fantastic Four?" I can't remember if this necessitated rebranding or new costumes had to be sewn up, but for a few dozen pages we got to see your friendly neighborhood wall-crawler mixing it up with the Invisible Girl and the Thing. Captivating for those of us who may have wondered about such things. Then there were those that proposed something a little darker, toying with life and death. What if Uncle Ben had lived? What if the Invisible Girl had died? The series gave us all a break to pretend something different from the pretend world we had been so carefully following. 

But one of my favorite stories from the What If... files was "What If Captain America Had Been Elected President?" Happily for me, the entire plot does not center on meetings in the Oval Office. Having a super hero for Commander In Chief brings out that certain element that eventually moves beyond the question of diplomatic relations with the recently reformed democratic nation of San Pedro. I won't spoil the ending in case you're interested in finding out just what might happen if Captain America had been elected President, but I can say that anyone who has spent a chunk of his life actively punching fascists would have my vote. 

Which brings me to the most recent version of "What If...?" This one is not sponsored by the folks at Marvel, but rather all the pundits and talking heads on both sides of the aisle. What if Hillary Clinton ran for President in 2024? What if Kamala Harris took over for her boss? What if Michelle Obama decided to take her shot? What I like about all of those suggestions is that they suggest that the time is long overdue for the United States to have a woman in the White House for something other than flower arranging and standing by her man. The Hillary thing is especially enticing since it offers up a special slice of a dish best served cold: Revenge. 

Of course, these are not the only names on the list that seems to grow each day since Joe Biden's series of senior moments. Gavin Newsom, Pete Buttigieg, and Steve Rogers have all been mentioned in this same flurry of Democratic speculation. 

Wait a minute? Steve Rogers? Isn't he...

What if?