Why all the intense media interest in who the next president will be?

Will it be Hillary? The Donald?
It makes no difference. The US is approaching 20 trillion in debt and there is no money to push any agenda other than to pay interest on the debt and satisfy entitlement obligations (like Social Security).
Issues like gay marriage, immigration, and ISIS simply distract you from your real problem.
The US can not afford to confront a true military crisis that would involve transporting and supplying divisions on the other side of the world. That job will be given to small cheap kill squads until the challenge is too great.
And forget the Supreme Court. Many appointments have surprised the president that nominated them. You simply never know how they decide an argument. I have seen the quote by President Eisenhower that two of his mistakes were on the SC.
The President is not Caesar. The President is merely the chief executive and Commander in Chief.
The latter means something to soldiers in the field and the Joint Chiefs, but not so much to everybody else.
The former is limited by Congress.
So what is the big deal?