Thoughts On The Next President
588 words.
With the presidential race “heating up”-or, as I like to think of it, “just barely getting started”-I figured I should take some time to ponder what kind of president appeals to me.
I have a cynical view of politics and government, as you might have seen in my blog now and then. It takes a lot of effort to overcome my fundamental belief that my vote doesn’t matter because 90% of the public isn’t very smart.
That’s the premise for this shocking declaration: I don’t think the person occupying the office of the presidency is terribly important. I think he (or she) is just a figurehead-just a visible face of America projected to the world. Sure the president directs policy in a very general sense, and he appoints the cabinet to implement his policies, but I’m confident that most of the real work is done by various layers of subordinates beneath the cabinet level, and the policy message undoubtedly dilutes the farther down the chain of command it goes.
I see it like a modern NFL football coach-Marty Schottenheimer, for instance. I watched him on the sidelines during the Patriots’s recent playoff game against the Chargers. He didn’t call the plays on offense or defense. Assistant coaches called the plays. Schottenheimer didn’t even wear a headset most of the time. His main function was providing morale and deciding whether to go for 1 or 2 points after each touchdown. And of course, providing a focal point for the television cameras. That’s basically how I think of the presidency.
Incidentally, that’s the main reason why I have a hard time blaming Bush personally for Iraq. He started the invasion in motion, obviously, but the people below him (generals, advisers, ambassadors, contractors, spies, etc.) are the ones that actually screwed everything up in the post-war aftermath. Bush is accountable for the actions of his administration, obviously, but I’ve never seen him as the string-pulling puppet-master that most other people complain about.
No, my main problem with Bush is pretty simple: He sounds illiterate. I’m embarrassed when he delivers speeches. And that’s, like, 90% of his job. What must the world think of Americans when they see our president traveling around the world? (Nevermind the fact that a lot of Americans are illiterate, too.) I sense Bush is more charismatic and persuasive in personal meetings, but as a public figurehead, he pretty much blows. It’s somewhat ironic, actually. I would have thought that any successful president in the television era would be telegenic, but Bush almost completely disproves that notion.
So I’ll mainly be looking for someone who sounds confident and educated and projects wisdom and intelligence, preferably without sounding too much like a politician. (I can’t stand politicians who won’t answer a yes or no question with a yes or a no-grow a spine!) I fear Iran and maybe even China will become very large problems in the next 10 years, so I’ll also be looking to see how our next president will address those global issues. I’d like to imagine our next president would be able to sit across a table from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and win a debate on the future of the world, perhaps while defeating him in a game of chess. That’s the kind of president that would inspire my confidence.
Beyond that, I only think it’s important to weed out candidates with radically left- or right-of-center worldviews.
Thomas Krehbiel writes The Krehbiel Strikes Back, a generally centrist commentary on news, media, politics, and culture.
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