LIBERAL WISHFUL THINKING

Notes of Concern…

                               …Jackson Blair

Liberal Wishful Thinking

Some liberals contend that the GOP has a pretty weak field in the presidential race.

 I enjoy reading assessments of the qualities, or lack thereof, of Mr. Cain, Governor Perry, Governor Romney, Speaker Gingrich, Ambassador Huntsman, U.S. Senator Santorum, and Congresswoman Bachman, along with many thinly veiled slaps at Governor Palin.

While we are all having some fun at the missteps, gaffes and learning curve we are witnessing  in the Republican debates, I think many writers who share liberal views need to keep in mind that every single one of the individuals named above have considerably more applicable experience at this juncture of their run for the presidency than did Barack Obama when he was seeking the nomination of the Democrats during the last presidential race.

Liberal writers would be better advised to write about the idealism and seeming promise of Barack Obama and the high hopes held by so many for his presidency and to compare those virtues that with the current field of “wannabees.”

Obama won huge numbers of voters to his campaign not because there was any hard evidence he would be good at the job, but because we liked him and we hoped he would bring his idealism, good heart, and lovely family and recreate “Camelot” for us.

Didn’t happen.

It didn’t happen because he did not have the experience necessary, nor the record of leadership required, to make the presidency work.

Unfortunately, leading the Free World requires the ability to decipher the mood of the people, to make the hard decisions and balance them with the easier ones, to be able to compromise and negotiate when you have to deal with the other branches of government, to be a real leader as well as an individual able to sell his programs far and wide, and to make the people feel comfortable with you as their leader.

For those of you who think the president has had a rough time of it because his predecessor left such a mess, or the Congress is not playing nice with him, or that he is subject to bad advice, or that as a minority there are still lots of folks out there who want to see him fail, I have a suggestion:

Get real!

This is the way our government works.

This is the way politics are played.

As President Truman famously said: if you can’t stand the heat get out of the kitchen.

The person in the Presidency takes responsibility for the country for four years. It is his administration. He doesn’t blame former presidents for his situation nor does he take credit for the work of others. From “day one” a President accepts the full responsibility for the office and begins to write his own record, a record that he will have to defend if he wants another four years.

I have no idea who the next president will be. Further, it is silly to even argue over it before we know who will be on both tickets and whether a third party will emerge. When we are down to two tickets, four people who have a reasonable chance to win the presidency and vice presidency, and we are comparing their talents and experience and ability to sell their ideas, then will be the time to really take a hard look at policy proposals and leadership qualities.

What I do know is that our country is worse off today than it was three years ago. I know that Democrats like to quote the successful Clinton campaign cry: “it is the economy, stupid!”....but I am betting you won’t hear that battle cry much in this election.

I also know we have "boots on the ground" in more places today than we did three years ago and that our credit ratings have taken a beating. Our housing situation is horrible and our unemployment numbers awful.

So as we approach the next presidential election I do not think we will be looking for good hearts, idealism, movie star good looks…unless they come in a package with measurable experience and proven results. And that is what the writers, columnists and pundits should focus on in the interim.

The most popular guy is rarely the Chief Executive Officer in corporate America, academia, or anywhere else in the real world.

The Chief Executive Officer is a man or woman who has worked up through the ranks, has a measurable record of good decision making, and who leads his employees through personal experience and understanding the product, selecting and promoting the best people, and being outstanding at marketing. He also provides the stockholders with a good return on their investment.

We Americans invested in Barack Obama a few years ago. The coming election will surely be evidence of whether we feel he produced a good return on our investment in him as our leader.

Americans must look for strong, capable and determined leadership in the man or woman who leads us for the next four years.  This is the kind of talent we must have at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in 2012. 

It may well be that people will feel President Obama’s four years of experience on the job is too valuable to ignore. It may also be true that people will feel he had four years to lead America to a better place and judge his efforts to have been ineffective.

On one thing most Americans can agree.

We are going to need some of that “change” President Obama talked so much about in the last presidential election to get through the next four years without sliding further back.