Job qualifications for President of the United States
By: Don Nash
Unknown News
Oct. 11, 2004
I am of the opinion that anyone holding the Office of the President of the United States of America should have first served our nation in the military. I am referring to the regular military, not some cushy ?my daddy got me in here? service. That the aforementioned service has been completed ?honorably? and without any questions about attendance or being absent without leave. A command position that drives home the responsibility for human life. It would also be nice if funny little concepts like integrity, honor, duty, sacrifice, fidelity, and humility were learned in real time service. That does not seem like an unreasonable requirement for our presidents.
Anyone holding the presidency should be smart -- world class smart. PhD or better and even MENSA smart. Presidents should to be able to grasp world issues and events. Presidents should understand consequences from actions. Presidents should be able to converse with world leaders in their own language, and able to think outside the box. Presidents should be able to walk and chew gum at the same time and still be smart enough to know that one crisis situation may not necessarily mean pushing the nuclear button and thereby bringing civilization to a sudden and catastrophic end.
Presidents must be spiritual. Not religious extremists or zealots or even be in some kind of political debt to one particular religious group, but the president should be sensitive to spiritual pain, hurt, suffering, the thirst for justice, and the divine dynamic of equality among all people.
All presidents should be able to write their own speeches. The leader of the free world should be able to express his or her thoughts and ideals effectively. Putting one?s thoughts on paper requires some discipline and some cognitive function. Discipline and cognitive function are conjoined twins in the intellectual life of world class leaders. A president that depends on a speech writer to communicate what that president is thinking/feeling on any issue, is suspicious and calls into question a president?s mental capacity. After the last four years that America has been through, a president?s mental capacity should be a serious consideration for every human on the planet.
America?s president should be family-centric. Presidents need to have that first hand experience with bringing up little Timmy and little Susie. Presidents need to experience the joy and soul searing pain of raising children. Presidents need to know the thrill of ?puberty? and the abject fear of the ?dating years?.
In the ?my perfect presidential world?, all presidents would be damned circumspect about committing our nation to war. If the ?ideal? president has completed their military service, they are fully aware of the costs of war. I?m not referring to the cost to the American taxpayer, but the real cost of war on families, soldiers, wives, children, and on society in general. The ?ideal? president would, at the time of committing our nation to war, authorize an executive order that would automatically induct the president?s own children into the military. If it is perfectly acceptable for any American family to sacrifice their children, it is perfectly acceptable for our president to make the same sacrifice. It also has the distinct advantage of putting the serious nature of war directly into the West Wing of the White House. Sauce for a goose is sauce for a gander. Americans have been getting ?goosed? by our nation?s presidents for a very long time and there is no time like the present for our president to provide a little sacrifice of the president?s very own. The Twins Go To War would make an interesting Disney movie.
Our presidents need to be able to visualize the affected faces of war ... "collateral damage" tends to be nothing more than a sound bite on CNN and that hardly makes for the reality being felt. Our presidents need to be provided with first hand accounts from the grunts that man the front lines, of the death and horror and the brutality and the carnage that is the innocent dying.
Our presidents must never start preemptive wars for some other nation. In this instance, I would use Israel as an example of what our presidents shouldn?t do. Our presidents must never allow our military to be used as pawns in the Israeli/Palestinian hate-fest. Our presidents must keep themselves and our nation above a neo-conservative dogmatic insanity that displaces the aptly trained and highly skilled military personnel that have this responsibility in the first place. I am referring to the military?s ability to access threats and dangers. Our presidents should be encouraged to terminate the services of Secretaries of Defense that circumvent the military?s abilities to do their jobs properly.
Our nation?s presidents should read and understand the Geneva Conventions. Our presidents need to ensure that our nation?s high-ranking offers read and understand the Geneva Convention and then not get cutesy with legal obfuscation regarding the legalities of torture.
Our presidents need to be fully bound by the Treaty for the International Criminal Court. One president's decision to go preemptive on Iraq for whatever convoluted reason he may have chosen or changed the rationale over, through the course of about 18 months, does not exempt them from being tried as a ?war criminal?. Baretta (Robert Blake) used to say before he so mindlessly disgraced himself, ?don?t do the crime if you can?t do the time.?
Most of these items I?ve listed here should be addressed by our nation?s Constitution. Fortunately, Senator Boring Hatch (R-Utah), Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and author of numerous proposed Constitutional amendments, is a personal friend of mine. The very next time that we get together for some beers and political gossip at Hooters, I?m going to bring all this up with the good Senator.
