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Would you be President?

Would you be President?

  • Yes

    Votes: 13 32.5%

  • No

    Votes: 20 50.0%

  • Maybe

    Votes: 7 17.5%
  • Total voters
    40
radcen

radcen

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If, by some weird quirk of the system, you were offered the job of President of the United States for one full term... would you take it?

Given the job, no campaigning or election.
 
radcen said:
If, by some weird quirk of the system, you were offered the job of President of the United States for one full term... would you take it?

Given the job, no campaigning or election.
Click to expand...

Probably not. I would rather be voted in, so I know people actually wanted me to hold that office.
 
Not just no, but hell no. You've got to have a serious alpha complex, and mean very serious, to even think about wanting that job. The required 24/7/365 proctological exam is enough to scare most sane folks off.
 
Trust me NO ONE would want me as the President.
 
clownboy said:
Not just no, but hell no. You've got to have a serious alpha complex, and mean very serious, to even think about wanting that job. The required 24/7/365 proctological exam is enough to scare most sane folks off.
Click to expand...
Sometimes I think that this is precisely what keeps most people who are actually well-qualified for the job from pursuing it. (Congress, too)
 
I would end all our useless military deployments.

I would stop bombing countries.

I would also try to shut down Homeland Security, Guantanamo, and all the other useless crap we've put in since '01. But I'd give more funding for the FBI to fight domestic terrorism.

I'd also try to end the War on Drugs.
 
I do not look to Lord over others. I would prefer to go serve at a soup kitchen. So I have no interest in being any type of politician.
 
radcen said:
If, by some weird quirk of the system, you were offered the job of President of the United States for one full term... would you take it?

Given the job, no campaigning or election.
Click to expand...

If I actually had to go through the campaign/election, then I definitely wouldn't. That would be horrible. But in your scenario, if I was just given the job without needing to go through the campaign/election, then maybe...but probably still no. It would probably be a lot better than being, say, a senator or representative...but even with a full staff waiting on me hand and foot, it still seems like it would really suck.

100+ hour work weeks, every week for four years. Vicious and constant attacks on you. Dealing with people whose sole goal is to defeat you. Extremists trying to shoot you. Having to console grieving families after national or personal tragedies. A lack of ability to go anywhere in public without a security entourage. Thanks but no thanks.
 
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Kandahar said:
If I actually had to go through the campaign/election, then I definitely wouldn't. That would be horrible. But in your scenario, if I was just given the job without needing to go through the campaign/election, then maybe...but probably still no. It would probably be a lot better than being, say, a senator or representative...but even with a full staff waiting on me hand and foot, it still seems like it would really suck.

100+ hour work weeks, every week for four years. Vicious and constant attacks on you. Dealing with people whose sole goal is to defeat you. Extremists trying to shoot you. Having to console grieving families after national or personal tragedies. A lack of ability to go anywhere in public without a security entourage. Thanks but no thanks.
Click to expand...

A lot of the horror of being president is following the polls every day and working toward re-election. Remove the 24/7 campaign mode and you can just kick back and appoint lifelong federal judges. I'd take the steady stream of **** to do that.
 
Sure, put my hat in the ring. The first Logical Party President.
 
There's no way in Hell I'd survive the first term. But man, what a ride. I'd take it in a heartbeat.
 
Sure. It'd be easy if you're not concerned about party politics. Sign the laws, just do what your advisors say. No worries.
 
If enough people wrote in my name and somehow the undemocratic electoral college voted me in then i would.
 
It would be a complete waste of my time to be president of a country that does not find my goals things that they want and I don't find what they want things this country needs more of. While it is a nice thought to be president there is no point for me in accepting the job at this time. Thanks, but no thanks. That is unless they elect a bunch of people that agree with me and I can get things done. :cool:
 
Sure. $400k a year and an assured immortal legacy, without even having to work toward it. Sure its a tough job with long hours, but I'm sure most of it is probably more exciting than an average 9-5 job.
 
In a second... though it would be a step down from being a God.
 
To be president means to represent all the citizens in your country. I don't want to do that because I cannot represent them all because of various reasons. I have nothing in common with them except our human condition. I could represent certain fragments of the population, but nowhere near the 50%+1 needed... and because I don't want to be a tyrant, I do not want to be president.
 
radcen said:
If, by some weird quirk of the system, you were offered the job of President of the United States for one full term... would you take it?

Given the job, no campaigning or election.
Click to expand...

Day one what am I going to do?
Should I do what I believe of what the people want me to do?
Do I actually read the thousands of pages of legislation that comes in on a daily basis in the morning and the check up on our national security every evening? Or should I delegate, if so who?
I say one thing wrong half the country attacks me
No vacation for four/eight years
Gray hair?

...sometimes we need to have a bit of respect for what our presidents do. Even bad one's like Bush.

I might do it if I know I'm ready, but right now I'd only do it in a simulation.
 
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No way would I want to be president.... The job would probably drive me crazy, being that I would try to please everybody (and that would be impossible)...

Seriously, though - I'm not interested in having that much power. Having power over others has a tendency to corrupt even the nicest individual - as a Christian, I'm more interested in saving my soul these days....

Frankly, if I had a choice of entering a monastery or being president, I'd choose the former.
 
I would not be able to stand the constant prying into my life. I'm a very private person. Plus, I've been arrested before and my opposition would certainly dig up that photo and I'd never hear the end of it. I'd also be worried about my family getting hassled, many of whom have opposite political views to my own. I can see the opposition digging up quotes from them and generally digging into all kinds of crap in my life. No, thanks.
 
No, I'd be inelegible. I would much rather be a faceless man, anyway.
 
Only if the same quirk gave me an unstoppable majority in Congress and then allowed me to quit after a couple of years.
 
Well let's see...

On the one hand, you get a chance to have a major effect on policy... but then again, the truth is that even most presidents don't REALLY get to change the world in a significant way.

OTOH.... four years of having your every word, gesture and expression filmed and analyzed.... your every decision may cost someone their life or their job, and maybe hundreds or thousands of lives or jobs, as well as being criticized and hashed to death in the media.... ageing at twice the normal rate due to the stress... knowing you can't just run down to the Burger King for lunch anymore, EVER for the rest of your life, because for the rest of your days Secret Service will be guarding you from assassination by loonies and political enemies, long after your term is done... never again would you "be your own person"....


Probably not. Not unless there was some reason to believe that my nation desperately needed me to take that position, and there wasn't someone else who was just as able and more willing.
 
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