With the election of 2044 a mere 423 months away, multiple Republican prospects — almost certainly including Piper Palin — are gearing up for the run for the Oval Office.

For a party anxious to move past 2008, it’s not too soon to start thinking about “the next, next, next, next, next, next, next, next, next time,” as the pros call it.

Now officially, of course, any talk of a presidential run is verboten.

“Oh no!” protested Richard Perry, grandson of former VP Dick Cheney, when asked about 2044 and specifically his own interest in a possible presidential run. “I’m going to tell you something. One of the worst things that can happen to the Republican Party in our effort to rebuild is for a bunch of kids to start running for president. Anybody harboring that ambition needs to squelch it until after 2040. … Anybody out there running for 2044 president is undercutting what’s important. You do this against your own interest.”

Following Grandson Perry’s admonition, every likely candidate asked the same question by Politico demurred in all the time-honored ways politicians demur about such questions.

Frontrunner Piper Palin, daughter of former Alaskan Gov. Sarah Palin: “That’s way too far away.”

Slade Ryan Jindal: “The most important thing I can do is let my dad be the best governor of Louisiana.”

Blake Sanford: “Fricken South American women.”

Mara Pawlenty: “My day care is an honor and a privilege to attend, and my focus is here.”

That is, according to the holy “don’t-get-beyond-the-next, next, next, next, next, next, next, next, next-cycle” writ of presidential politics, what they must say.

But don’t watch their mouths — keep an eye on their feet.

Palin, winner of the 2008 Wasilla Elementary Hall Monitor election, will begin hawking her new book, “What I Did on My Summer Vacation.” The book, she said, “makes the connection between the dots. Literally.”

Sanford, who is making his campaign trek on a tricycle with his baseball cards clothespinned into the spokes, is also slated to make stops in five adjacent classrooms in his school in South Carolina. The Palmetto State is typically home to the first-in-the-South GOP primary and has been a reliable indicator of who will get the party’s nomination in every primary since 1980.

Adapted from GOP Gears Up For 2012