The next Zeman

A panel of anti-Trump experts on Bill Maher's Real Time political comedy show on Friday wasn't able to come up with a name of a viable challenger to Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential race, unless you think John Hickenlooper or Pamela Harris is that person. There's still time to find someone, but the Democrats haven't even been able to agree yet on what kind of candidate they want. Should all the white males be ruled out, for example? On Václav Moravec's OVM yesterday, a panel of two anti-Zeman experts and political scientist Tomáš Lebeda spoke about why Miloš Zeman was so divisive as a candidate. Lebeda explained that the switch to a popular vote meant that the winner had to create an electoral base of the kind the previous two presidents didn't need. The two Václavs could play the role of a unifier, whereas a directly elected president needed to find a majority by setting himself apart from the crowd. This clearly still applies to Trump, who can run again, but why is two-time president Zeman still so divisive? In part because he wants to use his base to elect the next president too.