I have some big news for all of you.

After some deep thought and long discussions with my advisors and my family, I am going to officially throw my hat in the ring and declare myself as a candidate for the presidency of the United States of America.

Why not? Everyone else has.

I think I?have just as many credentials as some of those who are running. After all, I have been a president before president of a Kiwanis Club, Lions Club, church council and chamber of commerce.

Oh, yeah, and I was eighth grade class president back in 1964.

Besides, remember the movie “Dave?” He was just an average Joe who did a great job filling in as the president.

I am seriously thinking of making the big announcement next week in Ledyard, Iowa. The reason for that choice is that everyone who makes an announcement of running for president of these United States then leaves their home state and travels to Iowa. Some go by plane, some by fancy motorhome, some in their own private jet.

I might go by convertible with the top down if it is a nice day.

Why Ledyard you ask? Because it is only about 15 miles away from my home in Blue Earth. And, since my entire campaign fund now stands at about $37.43 in spare change I found around the house, I need to keep things on the cheap.

Let’s face it. Our neighboring state to the south has a lot of power when it comes to picking the next president. I am not sure exactly why, but it has to do with having the first caucus. Or is it primary election? Or lots of corn and hogs.

So I need to go to Iowa. And I can only afford one trip.

OK, so I am being a little bit facetious. I actually have a real job, which means I am unable to take the time to go campaign for the presidency. You need to be like a senator or a governor or something. They apparently don’t need to be at their job every day, putting in hours of hard work. They can just take off for a year and a half and let the staff handle things in the office while they go off campaigning to be president.

You heard me right. A year and a half away from their job.

Folks, this is just July of 2015. In case you are slightly confused and think the election is this coming November, you better check your calendar. It won’t be until November of 2016, nearly a year and a half from now, that we will pick a new president.

I can’t say that I blame you for being a little confused about when the election is.

With all the news coverage of the presidential campaigning in recent weeks, one would naturally think the election was this fall. Not a year from this fall.

Which means, of course, we are going to have to put up with all this politicking and campaigning rhetoric for many, many months.

To be honest, I am already tired of it. I am especially tired of hearing all about Donald Trump. Aren’t you?

You would think with 16 Republican candidates (or is it 17, I sort of lost track) there would be somebody else for the television news reporters to cover.

But, I guess, those others don’t make enough outlandish comments. But if you give them enough time, they might.

And Hillary Clinton is probably sitting back smiling since the news media is focused on Trump’s past history and not hers or her 55,000 pages of emails on her personal server.

I wonder if that number includes all her spam emails like I get every day…

I have just one comment on Donald Trump. If you have billions of dollars, why on Earth would you want to be president? Does he realize it is a four year commitment to doing a real job? If it was me, I would look for some fun ways to spend the money. And running for president would not be one of them.

It is hard to believe that Trump could become the Republican candidate, much less the next president of the United States. But, he is leading in the polls, for this week anyway.

And, strange things can happen in politics. You only have to look at our home state of Minnesota for proof of that. How on Earth did Jesse Ventura ever get elected governor of this state?

I haven’t checked the list lately. Jesse isn’t a candidate for president, is he?

So folks, get ready for about 15 months of the political circus which is the presidential campaign.

And when the election finally rolls around in November of 2016 and there isn’t any name on the ballot you like, remember, you can always write my name in.

Or Jesse Ventura.