Presidential Material

When faced with the decision about how to cast my vote, I look at it the way I looked at hiring an employee.  First I have define what experiences and abilities are needed to be successful at the job.

Then I look at what I want them to accomplish in the position.

Beyond their political stance – I want the person I vote for to have certain character traits and abilities that make them a good President.

• The President should consider the well being of the country in the long term as paramount over the considerations of the next election cycle.
• The President should have a firm plan of their own vision for the country.  Those ideas should be the result of processed thought and education and not vague generalizations.  They should have a serious and detailed plan for how they intend to achieve their goals.
• The President should be a person of honor.  Someone with integrity in both vision and action.
• The President should be a practical and common sense person, who recognizes the basic necessity of fiscal responsibility.
• The President should have a strong sense of priorities and yet have the flexibility to reorganize those priorities as situations evolve.
• The President needs be to a calm and assured person, who will make me feel they have control over any crisis that the country faces and won’t fall apart when things don’t go well.
• The President needs to have the ability to rally the public to their ideas.
• The President needs to have the political clout and connections to get things done in the legislature.
• The President should be smart and educated.
• The President should be good at picking great advisers and listening objectively to advice from all sides of a situation.
• The President should not be overly religious.  I don’t mind if they have faith in some deity, but it should NOT be part of their politics or agenda.  It should be personal.
• The President should be a compassionate and kind person. It should be noted that I’m not looking for Mother Teresa.  I’m looking for someone who recognizes the practical basics of getting compassionate and practical solutions for all people.
• The President should be a master of negotiation and the art of compromise.
• The President should have some of the same basic fundamental visions about this country that I do.  In other words, if they meet all of the above requirements, but they plan to make this country in a direction I can’t agree with, I can’t really vote for them.

The last one means that I have to define where I think the country should go and how important each of the issues is to me.  Which is another blog post.