Would you want to be President?

Sure. You gotta remember that the president isn’t god of the United States. It’s not all Bush’s fault that the country is the way it is now and Obama won’t be able to fix it all himself. We (The United States) have a pretty good system of checks and balances. Also, some of the problems lead back to us as citizens. But to your question, yeah, I’d give it a go. Why not? It’d be a good story to tell my grandchildren when I’m old.

Absolutely not! That’s a fast way to lead the world to disaster. I don’t know who to have on my cabinet, I don’t know when to say yes to something, or no to something else, I don’t have any contacts inside politics, I don’t intimately know relevant law and the US constitution, and have no idea where to begin with tackling the economy or the US’s foreign policy issues.

I could well end up being the next Bush, and that’s not something I want to tell my grandchildren.

I think the Presidency is the same as it always was, but we’ve had poor leadership that diluted the role. Equal power lies in our elected officials in congress; that’s where time and money really get wasted, and more due diligence on the part of citizens is due.

No, I don’t feel qualified to be president. It takes more than common sense, and good intentions. While I’m strong on being able to grasp implications in the big picture, and am relatively strategic, I would have a hard time keeping all the balls in the air.

I agree with your comment about Obama needing a solid staff, but I have to say I was quite disheartened to see that his first decision was to choose Rahm Emanuel as his chief of staff. For all Obama’s exhorting a need for change, he picks an ultra partisan old timer. For those who forget, Rahm was the puppet that Bill Clinton trotted out over and over again to proclaim that he “never had sex with that woman” and that it was all a part of a right wing conspiracy. Rahm was also one of the point men on Hillary’s failed health care plan. After working for the Clinton’s, he worked as an investment banker, yep, one of those Wall Street fat cats that Obama rightfully railed against. He also served on the board of directors of the recently failed Freddie Mac, one of the companies that started our current economic mess and the same firm Obama excoriated during his campaign. This is not a good start to building a solid staff for change.

No! My feeling about politics in general is that it is a dirty job, but someone has to do it. It is simply not possible to give everyone everything they want and politics is largely about the compromises necessary to reach a consensus. Simply put, it is necessary to give in on some issues dear to your heart in order to get what you want on others. Additionally, politics has become increasingly centered around being able to raise money. I have no stomach for such mechanations, but I am grateful for those who thrive on this.

@reed – any decision can be questioned, but if I was about to take on the most important job in the world I would probably want to have someone close to me who knew how the game was played currently, even if I didn’t agree with that person’s tactics. You can’t change the game if you aren’t familiar with the rules and loopholes.

I would not want the job and I had serious doubts about whether or not McCain wanted it towards the end. This is the time for an historic President and I think we found one.

Let’s see, this morning I’ve made no less than 10 life changing (according to my daughter) decisions, for my daughter – only 4 of which she liked. I had to prevent war between the dogs – we got a puppy and it’s terrorizing the big dog. The husband wasn’t sure whether or not he should spend money on a new tool set and I’m not talking something from sears, this is a professional set, ordered and the price of a small country (true, he makes a living with them, but sheesh!), then I budget and if we were meeting our budget, he groaned, but agreed.

Oh, I also had to be the family nutritionist….it’s amazing what they think passes as breakfast.

No. I can only maintain peace and prevent war in my household.

Oh, Hell no!

Sure of course, I’m preparing for it actually, I have great ideas :)

I’d be a good president except for one thing. I’m too fucking lazy. The president is never off the job, and that starts during the campaign, which is a 24 hour a day job.

Aside from that, I know something about just about everything, and I have an opinion on everything—even the things I know nothing about. I also love listening to advisors who have done research, and then deciding what to do. I hate doing the research myself, but will do it, if necessary.

I’d never get elected, though. I’m much too radical in my theories about peace-making and business development and health reform. However, I have confidence that in a few decades, just about everything I believe will be proven true.

Oh, one other thing. I’d never feel like I was worth being president.

No. I’d be assassinated in the first couple days. I would donate tax money to abortions, force ultra-high taxes on useless athletes and selfish record company execs and all multi-million dollar earning corporations that take down YouTube videos and won’t let Weird Al Yankovic parody their artists’ stupid pop songs. I would legalize gay marriage, nationwide. I would actually put money toward completely curing serious diseases, stop the ultra-rich from profiting on wars and put money into getting people off of expensive prescription drugs and try holistic and herbal treatments whenever possible. I would allow people to commit suicide with the help of a physician if they had a life-threatening illness and allow all stem-cell experiments to take place on human embryos. I would also force lethal-injection executions on all prisoners in the jails who have killed people and make sure white collar criminals get like 25 years or more in prison.

Nope! To do so would mean I’d have to tattoo a target on my chest, and I wouldn’t want to do that!!

Though to be fair as well, it should be clarified that nearly all the snipers are always trying to kill the progressives, Democrats, civil rights leaders. So it’s the supporters of the Right Wing that are have all the crazies. We may have a few fat people but who cares? Most people who have a problem with other people being fat are just judgmental creeps anyway.

No. Way. In. Hell.

I would consider running for a smaller office, though.

@Lazario Whaaaat????

I’m already getting old fast enough. Why would I want a job that would age me 10 years for every four I serve?

Great point, Darwin.

I think 10, if you’re lucky.
Between Hillary and McCain/Palin, I think Obama has aged 15–20 years in the past four.

Nope. Not a chance.

@darwin…you would make a great President, though. You are a great voice of reason.

Being president of the United States is probably one of the MOST stressful jobs in the world. I’d be much too honest for the position, it would not pay enough for all the trouble you had to go through, and it would most likely wreak havoc on your family life and your health. No, I wouldn’t want the job at all.

@cak – only if i step away from the computer periodically. :-)

Of course! My first act would be to abolish all religion. My second act would be to make homosexuality compulsory, so that people have to sneak off to have “abnormal” heterosexual sex. My third act would be to put LSD, ecstasy and crystal meth in the drinking water. (Bottled water would be heavily taxed.) My fourth act would be to confiscate the earnings of corporate CEOs making more than $400,000 a year—and the wealth of families in excess of $10 million. I would legalize all currently illegal drugs, and I would let everyone now in prison on drug-related charges out. And I would order the government to issue porno stamps for people too poor to afford Viagra and quality porno, or too ugly to have sex with anybody but a prostitute.

(Just kidding.)

@monty: a total focus on social issues and health issues? What about the war? Wouldn’t you order all US soldiers to immediately surrender and turn over their guns to their opponents?

And I’m dying to see what you’d do with the economy. Confiscate all companies, and turn them over to the people?

@Monty…somehow I missed the “just kidding” at the end. I was checking my water to make sure there wasn’t already drugs in the water! :)

@Scamp – what do you mean, “what?” ?

I would love to, but considering the responses I evoke in this forum, my presidency would be a “Teddy Roosevelt”, a rough riding son of a gun.