Tom Cotton for president? Bill would make it easier for him to run

Sen. Tom Cotton's rise in politics has been described as meteoric, but a presidential bid in 2020?

A bill that would make it easier for the Republican senator to run for re-election and the White House at the same time in 2020 is advancing in the Arkansas state Senate -- barely three months after Cotton was sworn in at the U.S. Senate.

Cotton has been making headlines this week for writing the GOP letter to Iranian officials warning that any agreement with President Obama about their nuclear ambitions may only be temporary.  Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton and other Democrats have condemned the letter for trying to undermine presidential authority.

"Tom Cotton would be my current idea of someone who should be afforded this opportunity," state Sen. Bart Hester, a Republican, told the Associated Press. "Politics, if I've learned anything, it changes every day and there could be the great next hope show up tomorrow."

Arkansas is one of those states -- like Kentucky -- that doesn't allow candidates to run for two offices simultaneously. This is an issue that Cotton's colleague, Rand Paul, knows first hand and is trying to get around with his proposal for a presidential caucus in Kentucky.

Cotton is the Senate's youngest member at the age of 37.  He's an Iraq and Afghanistan veteran with a Harvard law degree. Cotton, who served only one House term, defeated Democrat Mark Pryor last year.