Topic awaiting preservation: What do you want in a president?

There have been so many threads about which president is better than the other, and why one party doesn't hold a candle to the other. The discussion is completely polarized. I feel that we need a discussion on not what we hate about one candidate, but what we would like in all candidates.

As a Mad Sci I have the power to delete posts. And in this thread any reply with mention of a particular candidate or party will be removed. If you want to start a new topic to discuss the qualities of a particular party feel free to, but do not do it in here. This is a general discussion about what skills you think a leader must posess, and what a good leader should do. Further, for each attribute you should tell a little about why you think it is a good quality, and why a leader should have it.

YOU MIGHT WANT TO LIMIT YOURSELF TO ONLY ONE QUALITY AND ELABORATE ON IT

Sorry for shouting. Feel free comment on any quality mentioned.

I am going to start it off.

HONESTY
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I feel that one of the major qualities that any leader needs to have is honesty. The good the bad and the ugly should be shared. Lies by omission should not be a quality of the leader. With honesty secrecy should be avoided at all costs. There are times when secrecy might be necessary, these times would be when giving out information might endanger the lives of anyone anywhere. However, even the protecting of lives has its limits because this can be taken to an extreme. There should be no secrecy when it comes to any governmental action that might affect the citizens. With honesty open and real debate of all positives and negatives should be encouraged at all times.

In a utopian society, something that I feel everyone should be striving towards, there needs to be no secrecy between leaders and individuals. There would only be honest discussion, never sugar coated, never played up. With this honesty comes actual improvements. No action would be taken upon faulty information. Benifit and cost would allways be accurately weight by the many eyes as opposed to the limited few in power.

Dan @ Code Town

Do these have to be qualities that might actually exist in a person?

Let's see...

Thrift
A leader should be thrifty and wise in the ways of money. There's a lot out there that the government is responsible for financially, and a leader should understand those finances and be able to manage them responsibly.

This goes along with honesty, as honest people generally don't try to scam folks for money. Honesty would be my first choice in qualities, but since it was taken, I thought I'd suggest something else.

<edit>I thought that was a curse word!</edit>

If One Quality stood above the rest, I would have to choose (and I know it sounds odd) but Pro-American. There's too many canidates and prior presidents that care about World issues or our place among other countries and how well we interact with them. I see it's a necessity (at times) to put our self in that position for security and good trade, but I think upon doing so we have made our enimies hate us more and our allies see us as greedy. I think if we started acting more centralized we can get our economy back up, stronger security, and not draw so much attention to ourselves to be scrutinized by others. Common issues you will hear soon, we all know the term, outsourcing. There should be no tax cuts for companies that follow such an act. If anything they should be taxed more because thier already getting a pretty sweet deal as is. We have the people, we have the technology, we have the ability. Lets have a canidate that cares about his people and not his image......Drink Sprite.



(Edited by WarMage on 07-09-2004 00:55)

I don't think thriftyness is that great of a thing for a leader. Look at Canada, they're cutting the hell out of our health care and lowering the crap out of wages of nurses throughout BC.

That's not a very good thing. It took 3 hours for me to get stitches in the hospital at 2:00 AM 9 years ago, it's probably a living hell now. They'll actually turn people away at health clinics because they're only allowed to take in 100 patients a day. That's just plain crap.

Me, out of a leader I want lots of stuff. If they're a smart leader they'll make it look like I'm getting all that stuff, when really I'm getting screwed. If they're a good leader.... well, they don't exist, so I really wouldn't know.

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How long a minute is depends on what side of the bathroom door you're on.

Good hair

I want a president who values programs like education, national healthcare, and social security. I want a president to lower taxes AND lower spending. I want a president who exhausts all options before going to war.

quote:

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What do you want in a president?

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Which president, and how big an object will fit?

One who won't interfere in that elections of other countries?

Imagine the nerve of him telling Australians that they should vote for John Howard...eyebrow'y little bastard's been in office for three terms already and has just keep dragging Australia through the mud with him, especially with his continuedassertations that the war in Iraq is a necessary thing, even though now he can't give a reason becuase all the ones we *was* giving have been discredited. Good going Johnny Boy, you just keep giving us a bad name and bring us deeper into the American hegemony.

Competence. That is what I want. I want a President, that is competent. If he/she doesn't know much about foreign affairs, then he/she should be competent enough to choose advisors that are. Same goes for All other areas! I'm not asking that the President be an expert in all areas - only one - that of choosing the right people, to do the job.

Decision maker. The President should be able to make a decision.

Politician. The President should be a politician. Because The President will be dealing with the heads of states, of other lands, and the representatives of the other party (s). Sometimes, diplomacy and tact are better tools, than bluster and force of will. Sometimes they are not. A good politician knows this.

Orator. The President should be a good Orator. Why? To convince and lead the Masses.

I think the above criteria is a good start...

WebShaman | Asylum D & D | D & D Min Page

I feel that getting what people want in a president is about as likely as me sprouting wings out of my ass then starting to play the flute with air being blown from my ears. Getting more than one thing is something very strange to get, in my opinion.

Hell, Jean Chretien (previous canadian prime minister) had no compitence, was involved in scandals, and couldn't even speak English right! (though I suppose with the speech impediment, he couldn't speak French either...)

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"Dawn is nature's way of telling you to stop using that stupid quote."
- me.

I feel that getting what people want in a president is about as likely as me sprouting wings out of my ass then starting to play the flute with air being blown from my ears. Getting more than one thing is something very strange to get, in my opinion.

Hell, Jean Chretien (previous canadian prime minister) had no compitence, was involved in scandals, and couldn't even speak English right! (though I suppose with the speech impediment, he couldn't speak French either...)

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"Dawn is nature's way of telling you to stop using that stupid quote."
- me.

How about arsenic..

QUOTATION: "The trouble with a rat race is that even when you win, you're still a rat.''

What do I want in a President? Bill Clinton. It's about time national executives start acting like interns.

WISDOM

I want someone who is Wise. In a perfect world, a person who is pro construction, and against destruction. Back to the first, in Israel's past, King Solomon was wise. Granted he had almost 300 (i think) wives, but he was still quite wise. He allowed the country of Israel to prosper for decades. That is what I would say.

Do not rebuke a moker or he will hate you, rebuke a wise man and he will love you.

L O V E

*lots of it, and the rest will come..

cell 799

Hippy.

I want a leader with some pazzaz, that instead of using taxpayers money on scandals to get themselves rich, gets a modest living, and spends the money that would otherwise be spent on these scandals on big fireworks displays in the middle of no-where, a cannon shooting a massive wedding cake at the parliament building, basically someone who does crazy-ass stuff that doesn't lose us any more money than we're already losing.

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"Dawn is nature's way of telling you to stop using that stupid quote."
- me.

Beware of somebody who tells you how honest he is. I don't trust any politician completely but if i could pick any politician i would have two words for you all, JOE KERNAN.

If one match can start a forest fire then why does it take the whole box to start a BBQ Grill?

I thinks is nearly ridiculous to vote one president out of two. Has anyone seen the futurama episode, where the two aliens, Jack Johnson and John Jackson. The difference is so small that you can't really vote for a change. I don't think that the elected President is the problem. It's the political system.

Hah, I love that episode, especially Nixon playing "White Rabbit".
"I'm meeting you halfway, you stupid hippies!"

quote:

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What do you want in a president?

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Half a brain and the ability to speak English better than Arnie would be a great start.

==I don't believe it! Somebody stole my sig!!==