Why would anyone want to be President of the United States right now?

Not me.

Mad bennies and a sweet retirement plan?

What’s a bennie?

Benefits…

Unlimited golf, killer vacations, throw big parties and invite any celebrity you can think of, personal chef, tailor, masseuse…never experience a traffic jam to where ever you are going and can you say Air Force One?

It’s all about power and fame.

It takes a particular kind of person with a particular kind of mindset to seriously seek out a position like president in the first place. A kind of insatiable ambition with not a small amount of hubris to go with it.

Power holds no attraction for me. I read somewhere that people who want the job of president should, by definition, not have it.

@Jak

Well that holds true for all politicians. Be weary of anyone asking you to give them power.

The Onion – November 4, 2008 – Black Man Given Nation’s Worst Job

Ego.

It takes a special (and I am using Special in a pejorative way) type of person to think that he/she can be president. The person has to put up with so much shit that the person’s psyche makes him/her impervious to real emotion…. which disqualifies that person from being president.

All politics is corrupt and being a politician appeals to a person with corrupt emotions.

The presidency is just a higher political position.

I work for a politician and I hate politics. I can never understand why someone would want to be a politician of any kind. It’s all who you can trust, who you can’t trust, who’s on your side, who’s not on your side, who you hate, who you like, who can help you, who can hurt you and on and on and on and on.

As to the OP, my answer would be exactly the same as @Darth_Algar‘s:
“It takes a particular kind of person with a particular kind of mindset to seriously seek out a position like president in the first place. A kind of insatiable ambition with not a small amount of hubris to go with it.”

As far as politics, I don’t believe all politicians are necessarily corrupt.
There are people with high ideals and good intentions that run for political office, but politics are corrosive. Generally they bail or they are sucked into the game. It’s possible (if exceedingly rare) for politicians to me largely above board on the local, and even state, level.

Yeah, I’ll grant that there are a small handful of politicians who perhaps don’t have the kind of personality I mentioned. Bernie Sanders, Jimmy Carter perhaps. But I don’t know that, when it comes down to it, such people make effective presidents. We can see how Carter’s tenure in the White House went. Aside from a hostage crisis it doesn’t seem like Carter’s presidency was all that remarkable. And while I like Sanders I honestly do have my doubts as to how effective he will be in the Oval Office.

For the record, I don’t believe you can make it to the White House without a fair dose of what most of what the average person defines as “corruption”.
At the time it might have seemed like “compromise” or “accommodation”, but it’s the proverbial ‘slippery slope’. Many politicians, IMO, aren’t corrupt by intent, but are corrupted by the system. Those most corrupted by the system seem to go the farthest, today.

So much so, that we now have someone like Trump – who has a proven track record of stomping on little old ladies in the name of profit – making an end-run toward the Presidency.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3t8L5sfJto

@Darth_Algar Carter was notable for waging peace in the Middle East. See
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/carter-peace/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_David_Accords
From the PBS site:
“It’s difficult to imagine any other American president doing what Carter did at Camp David. Most would not even have tried, and Carter’s capacity for hard work, mastery of detail, moral integrity and just plain stubbornness all came into play.”

He also worked to defuse the Cold War with the SALT II negotiations (opposite of the escalation Reagan did with Star Wars etc yet revisionist f*tards like to say Reagan helped end the Cold War – fools).

He helped get Panama back its canal. (As much as the powers that be would allow…)

He was a pacifist and generally benevolent and was NOT just a corporate pawn, a scumbag, an ignoramus, or any of the other ridiculous things we get for most candidates since him. His presidency set him up to continue to do great work for peace in the world. He continues to use his voice as former president to speak the actual truth, as mentioned in the Wiki on him:

“He has vigorously opposed the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. FEC to strike down McCain-Feingold limits on campaign spending by corporations and unions, saying that the U.S. is “no longer a functioning democracy” and now has a system of “unlimited political bribery.””

In comparison to people like Reagan, Bush, Palin, Romney, Trump, or Cruz, Carter is amazingly good. Considering the question here, which is why would anyone want to be president, we’re lucky to have such people.

Bernie Sanders looks even better, to me.

To me this question represents one of the key problems facing us these days concerning the viability of we as a nation. The intersection of the obvious motives, from the idealism of public service through power lusting and self aggrandizement guarantees that they all tangle up. Who’s to say who is motivated by what?

No housework to do. No cooking, since the chef does it for you, and it’s all FABU! And that cool little family living area upstairs! You never run out of hot water in the shower!