I realize that it’s obvious – all of the US Presidents have been men, and all but one have been white men. (tall white men.)
I’m not sure that’s served us well.
I think back on the Presidents who have been in office that I can recall having an opinion about. Nixon was clearly a poor choice – hindsight is great. I didn’t think that much of Reagan – seemed like a nice man, but not sure about him as President. I did respect George HW Bush; solid, high integrity, honest and had relevant experience. Not so much his son W – not sure he was quite bright enough, though hindsight on him is a lot better than the one we have now, of course. At least he was – or seemed to be – an honest man. Jimmy Carter was a good, honest individual – maybe not a President, but someone we can look back on with respect. Bill Clinton was highly intellligent; super smart fellow – i listened to him speak live at an event once and he was awfully impressive. Maybe not quite as high in integrity as some of the others, but he had Hillary at his side, bless her. I thought Obama had most of what it takes – great role model, highly intelligent, honest. Probably made some mistakes with international policy, but I don’t know that any of these people got away without making mistakes. Speaking of mistakes – Joe Biden – a very nice old man, but not a great choice for President. I believe he was an honest man – conservative smearing notwithstanding – but that’s just the ante to play. What do I mean by that?
I think our President needs to be:
- highly intelligent; this is a complex job
- a good judge of talent; he/she needs to be surrounded by excellent advisors and willing to listen to them. No one is an expert at everything.
- honest. high integrity – a not insignificant aspect is that of being a role model. Obama, Lincoln, (elder) Bush, and many others were excellent role models.
- A good negotiator – we have allies and we also know that other leaders are less in our camp. Cannot be taken advantage of by those. And then there is congress to negotiate with as well, of course.
Others will identify additional traits that are critical to being a successful president but these are the ones that occur to me. I also know that choosing a President is not the only important thing with regards to having our country continue to be successful and a role model in many ways. Many solutions are local. It is where I choose to participate.
The fellow that some of you voted for and clearly elected – TWICE – and is in the office today, fails pretty much all of my critical quality tests. He is not very bright, he is not a good negotiator, he is dishonest and lies about everything, he does not surround himself with quality people and doesn’t listen to them in any case. Donald Trump is an embarassment, an infuriating mistake that our country will be paying for – for generations, i fear. He has taught the world that they cannot count on us to be helpful global leaders any longer much less good neighbors. Our alllies are learning to fend for themselves, do without us or ally with others. Our “enemies” (are they really?) see the current environment as only opportunists can. It all makes me sick to my stomach, and I am desperate for it to end.
Back to the title – would we benefit from having a woman in the office? If she has the qualities I have outlined, for sure. There are, however, as many poor female choices as there are male choices – would you want Kristi Noem, or Pam Bondi to be our President? I shiver as much as I do about JD Vance. Would Hilary Clinton have been a good President? I do think so – she is very intelligent, seems to listen well, communicate well enough(?) and is able to negotiate. All that bullshit about her emails was so insignificant in comparison to…oh well.
I have made no mention of political party. I am not sure I mind whether our president is a democrat or a republican – they are both failing us right now, I would have loved to see John McCain as President. I also think there are some strong democrats. This is not about liberal v conservative either. Trump is not a conservative. He is the opposite of the definition of conservative – he is a radical!
My purpose here is not to choose the next President. Frankly I would take almost anyone other than this corrupt imbecile in the office today. Trump is a bully and conducts himself like a mafia boss. I hope we survive him, choose a high integrity leader next time, and convince the bulk of our populace that they made a poor or misinformed decision this past time. I could forgive them. I think.
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