Posted on 07/25/2014 1:40:35 PM PDT by SJackson
Being president is the most powerful job in the world. At which you will almost certainly fail.
Why? For lots of reasons up to and including:
* The decline of the bully pulpit as a persuasion mechanism
* The deep partisanship present not only in Congress but also in the electorate more broadly
* The splintering of the mainstream media/the rise of social media.
Consider the last three presidents -- two Democrats, one Republican -- who have had to deal with those three factors in varying degrees. (Can you imagine what Bill Clinton's presidency would have been like if Twitter existed?) As Ron Brownstein writes in a terrific National Journal piece headlined "Half of America":
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Well, to start with, we need a president with measurable IQ, leadership ability, education, sense of history, and morals.
For Obama, none out five isn’t bad.
I recall the same argument at the end of the Carter administration. In particular, it was made during the Republican convention that nominated Reagan, in conjunction with speculation he would nominate Gerald Ford as his running mate.
With the MSM handing out “hall passes” daily, this is proof that being commander in chief is not a job for idiots.
Proof that the Nobel Peace Award is just an award for showing up.
It must really irk the Left that they can't have a modern version of the notorious Walter Cronkite -- misleading the American public night after night.
Oh, bovine used food. The jerk isn’t even trying.
Good, lets reduce the president’s duties down to the constitutional ones. The left will not argue the issue anymore.
They missed the most important point.
The office of the President of the United States was created with a limited set of duties and responsibilities. But over time, egotistical presidents have cumulatively usurped far more power than was ever intended for them to have. In short, they want to always be in charge, the bride at every wedding, and the corpse at every funeral. Likewise, they and their office are continually in the limelight, *at their behest*.
This needs to end. It will end with a POTUS who realizes even before he is elected that his office is too powerful and too aggressive. He will have to work with a cooperative congress, and yet many congressmen and senators lust for that office *and* all of its powers as they are. So to reduce these powers will not be easy.
Before he is even nominated, he must be asked the question: “Do you think the office of the president is too powerful, and if you do, how should it be limited?”
If his response is either that the powers of the office are acceptable, or that they need to be enlarged, then he is not fit for office. Most likely, he is so self confident that he honestly believes that he can “control the power and use it wisely.”
No, he can’t. Nobody can. The office MUST be reduced in power.
To worry that it might become an “imperial presidency” is not irrelevant, because it *has* become that. And to thrive, this imperial presidency must end.
I remember Bubba’s legacy - a mid-east peace deal....not really working out.
Oh yeah - Jimmah’s legacy was....a mid-east peace deal.
Step 1 is admitting you have a failed President. This is progress.
"Being president is the most powerful job in the world."
Regardless that the president is commander in chief of the US Armed Forces, the above PC statement blatantly ignores the federal government's constitutionally limited powers imo.
In fact, the Founding States made the federal Constitution to limit the federal government's powers to the extent that Obama should arguably be spending much more time on the golf courses than he already does.
And if a president wants a break from the golf course they could always use their golf cart to help the US Mail Service deliver mail in compliance with the Constitution's Clause 7 of Section 8 of Article I, delivering mail one of the federal government's very few domestic responsibilities.
If this sad excuse-making helps them on the road to reality, fine. Pretending that Obama is not an empty failure must be a terrible strain.
In a way, I agree with the author’s larger point. Our current excess of democracy actually does make it hard to elect competent presidents, since they reflect and pander to the lower common denominator. People who are truly capable would not want the job, would refuse to market themselves as vapid celebutants, and could never be elected. That leaves us with legacies and egomaniacs.
* The deep partisanship present not only in Congress but also in the electorate more broadly
* The splintering of the mainstream media/the rise of social media.]
Because oratory is Obama’s primary skill he has overused the bully pulpit, often for childish partisan rants which alienate half the country. The “deep partisanship” was instigated by Obama even before his inauguration and repeated daily during his first two years when he controlled all of Congress. The “splintering of the (left of center) mainstream media” with the advent of the internet is a boon to freedom of information and the First Amendment. It is a mortal threat the elitist establishment press.
The Post seems to have gone from ignoring the failures to making excuses.
Could it be a step toward acknowledging reality - that Obama is, without any question of a doubt, the WORST president in the ENTIRE history of the United States?
Perhaps the WAPO should stop backing men without chests.
*apologies to CS Lewis
It might not be so difficult if the President didn’t view half the country as his enemy.
Well I certainly agree that it’s mission impossible for Barack Obama: he proves that daily. He and his minions would be shocked at how fast the country would unite to get things done led by a conservative, smart President who announced that the power of our country is from our people. That’s an alien thought to the current progressives.
TC
At least Jimmy’s peace deal held until Obastard turned Egypt over to the MB
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