The Qualifications Quandary

In light of the recent selection of Gov Palin to be McCain's VP, a lot is being said by both sides about what qualifies someone to be POTUS. For months Obama has been criticised as unready, underexperienced and unqualified. Now McCain has picked a VP, a positions whose only requirement is that the occupant be qualified to be President, and selected a lady who is, at best, as qualified as Obama and probably less so.

Republicans have claimed that Palin's meager experience is more "qualifying" than Obama because she was an executive and he was only in the legislature. Of course, McCain has no executive experience either.

So what really makes someone qualified to be President of the United States?

First there is the obvious constitutional qualifications: A person must be at least 35 and a natural born citizen who has not already served two terms as President, or two terms plus less than half of another President's term. All four candidates meet this requirement, as do my parents, grandparents, Lou Holtz, Don Rickles, Julia Roberts and Michael Jackson.

But these little qualifications aren't really what we are talking about. What makes someone "readly to lead" or qualified to answer that 3 AM phone call?

I think we need to preface this by saying their are two different standards here: qualified to be President, and qualified to be a GOOD President. Many, Many, Many people are qualifed to be President. Its not really that hard. The President does not just sit in a secret room all day pressing buttons which keep the world spinning, knowing that one false move will send us into recession or cause fire to rain from the sky. This is the most managed, advised, scripted and assisted position in the entire world.

The President has advisors coming out of his ears, nose and ass. Legislative advisors, political advisors, policy advisors, the Vice President, the Congress, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, religious advisors, his old college roommate who he once made out with while drunk but then they never talked about it because they are so not gay and they were totally wasted, brah. If the President wants something done, he doesn't just do it. He calls in a team of advisors, they advise, and he selects from a handful of relevent options. If he wants a law passed, his adivsors meet with the leaders of the House and Senate to prepare a bill. It goes through legislative limbo for months, and eventually it (maybe) comes back to his desk where he signs or vetos it.

I know we are "at war" or whatever, but rarely does the President manage the day to day affairs of any conflict. He tells the Generals to kick some ass and they do it. The mythical 3 AM phone calls which the President has to know how to handle or the world may end and puppies will die? Bullshit. You wake him (or her) up, he comes down to the war room in his PJs, and the Joint Chiefs tell him what's up and give him a few options which have already been thought out by a hundred strategists and analysts, he picks one, gets a glass of water and goes back to bed. Similarly, if he's negotiating with another nation he doesn't just waltz in like he's browsing for new blouses at a Macy's sale. Every detail, every handshake, every flashbulb is pre-arranged by a legion of underlings, and all the real negotion takes place by diplomats in seperate sessions.

The rest of his job is all soft stuff, photo ops with girl scouts and guys who raised 50 grand for cancer research by juggling flaming chainsaws with one hand. Smoozing with political donors and taking vacations. Throw in a few State of the Union Addresses and you've got yourself an Administration.

Obama can do this job. So can McCain, Biden, Palin, and your great aunt Jenny. Hell, W has done this job for 8 years! He's not the learning impaired chimp we all want to make him out to be, but he's not exactly the brightest blouse in the Macy's sale. Being President is not that hard.

Being a GOOD president is. Actually, no, being a Good President isn't that hard either, but does take more than just being President.

The difference between a President and a Good President is that a Good President can pick good people to be his advisors and to represent him. He can filter through all the bad information being thrown at him and select the best policy possible. He is curious, not afraid to change his mind or consider new facts, and not overly dependent on yes men or party loyalists. A good president may appoint someone loyal to him to represent him, but only if that person is also qualified for the job.

To me, this is what kills W as a President. His whole Administration is full of Yes men, extreme partisans, and manipulators which he is either too dumb or too narrow minded not to be swayed by. When he and his crew decided "Baghdad or Bust" it was their way or the highway, and no amount of sound counsel was going to derail that trainwreck. Dissenters are dimissed or ignored, no matter how good their advice or their qualifications. Changing your mind is an unforgiveable weakness to this Administration, no matter how wrong you continue to be. And don't you dare think ten, five or even three steps down the road to the implications of your chosen policy or even hint at suggesting that something could possibly not got as planned. Everything is going to go exactly as we think it is, despite the fact that any sane person knows this is almost impossible. Thank God we had JFK and not W calling the shots during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Looking back, its amazing how much tunnel vision and dedication to cause was needed by W and his crew in order to pull off the flaming disaster which is the Iraq War. I'm cynical enough to expect politicians to lie, cheat and steal. I'm even cynical enough to basically expect them to screw up a lot and not really do anything worthwhile. But damn was this one bad fuckup, and it shows the difference between someone qualified to be President and someone qualified to be a Good President. With a GP this doesn't happen.

Similarly, W has appointed a rogues gallery of idiots, partisans, meatheads to represent him in important positions based not on their actual qualifications but on their loyalty to him and the agenda at hand. Granted, all Presidents do this to some extent, as the diplomatic corp is full of Ambassadors whose biggest qualifications is the check they wrote during the campaign season. But in some positions it actually matters if the person is able to do the job. Brownie is the biggest example of this. He was utterly unqualified to be the Head of FEMA and whats worse is that he apparently never even tried to learn his job. This is unacceptable, and the mark of a bad president.

I think all four of the candidates are better than W (not exactly the highest hurdle), and I think all four have the qualifications and character to be good presidents. All are smart, tough and genuinely care about this nation. I think all would appoint good people to advise and represent them. And I think they are all open minded enough to see alternatives and not dismiss advice that contradicts their chosen dogma. If McCain, Obama, Biden or Palin had been President instead of Bush I don't think there is an Iraq war. Sure there would have been a push for it, but I think they would have been smart enough to avoid all the bad thinking which went in it. Only time will tell, but I think its time we put this whole "ready to lead" thing to bed.

It needs its rest for when the hotline rings at 3 AM.