I cannot let the day pass with out addressing this Forbes article: The Presidency Is “Too Big For One Man”
I have no argument with the header as I have two corollaries:
- It is too big for one man, the man who currently occupies the post. It is clearly too big for Baby Bear. (Sorry, I just cannot resist incorporating Hillary’s “Goldilocks” analogy.)
- It is not too big for one woman. I think we all know who that particular woman is.
I do, however, have a huge problem with the conclusion.
Electing someone else to sit in the White House isn’t necessarily going to bring about a federal government that functions better. For that to happen, we need to give our presidents fewer tasks to perform well….
Wait a minute! Because this president cannot handle the whole job we should water it down? Farm out the duties? (He does have a cabinet, after all.) That is the job. It is what it is. We should, because of his incompetence, initiate what a community college or university would call a “Developmental Presidency?” Really?
While I agree that “electing someone else to sit in the White House isn’t necessarily going to bring about a federal government that functions better,” it certainly can meet that objective. I direct your attention to the newly unveiled QDDR draft here: Hillary Clinton’s Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR) **Consultation Draft**
I have said it before (some will *sigh* – yes, endlessly), but I will say it again. Hillary Rodham Clinton will (I am so finished with the subjunctive on this subject) order reviews like this in every department and overhaul the Executive Branch in doing so. SHE will bring the government into the 21st century.
So, yes, it is clearly too much for one man, but not for one woman. This one. 
Of course, as my header points out, it appears she was not on the radar of Professor Glenn Reynolds nor his Forbes “refudiator” (Ha! still underlined in red) at Forbes. The preponderance of masculine markers in the article speaks for itself.
She needs to run, and get herself elected, first.
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That’s why I used the future indicative.
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On the other issue, (because there’s no competing with a grammar-geek-Hillary-fan on the issue of her running and winning 🙂 ) I don’t think the cure for a seemingly-weak president is to cripple the office of the presidency. That’s possibly the dumbest idea to come out of DC in a while. This is the biggest, most important job in the country, only serious applicants need apply. If he can’t hack it, he should do the honorable thing and not seek re-election and allow someone else who can do the work run for it.
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BTW, I mean “grammar geek” affectionately. 😉
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B-I-N-G-O!!!!!
The kind of talk in that article seems (dangerously, I think) to be suggesting we restructure our government along the lines of a parliamentary model which our founders rejected! Maybe they had a reason! Look at Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel, and even the UK.
I don’t know Glenn Reynolds’s background, but I do not think that is a road we should take.
edited to add: I lookd him up. He’s a kind of pundit-rock-star. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenn_Reynolds
But he is not from a parliamentary democracy. He’s from Tennessee.
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It creepy that someone would assume that the government needs to be restructured because the top job is a difficult one. Just because Obama is having problems delivering does not mean that it is impossible in the 21st century. Candidate loyalty should only go so far, IMHO.
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Two years in DC was not enough experience, and this is the result. It’s a whole new century, and the mode seems to be that only those with no experience need apply. It proliferates at every level. No experience in education? Great! You’re the new chancellor! Vote for me, the (failed) CEO! I am not now, and never have been a
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With articles like this one, it makes one wonder how men have the “balls” to consider themselves superior to women! Rather than place the responsibility on the man being simply “not qualified” (which we Hillary supporters knew over 2 years ago about obama), they choose to lower the standards of the office to accommodate the man’s incompetence!
Perhaps, this is prime evidence that since men have always been remiss when it comes to multitasking and women do not, is exactly why it’s long past time to launch a woman into the WH! Imagine what we’ve lost by letting men define and set the standards. Lower for them and higher for women. By this standard alone, women would do a better job because we all know no man would ever lower the standards for the woman and a woman who could achieve the WH would not need the standards lowered!
Saving our country is much more important than saving the male ego and if we continue to wait for the men to come around and accept a woman as the leader of the free world, there won’t be any world left!
Women (and englightened men sensitive to gender) it’s time for a revolution because the alternative is unbearable to ponder.
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Well stated. On a more optimistic note, check out the contrast between last year’s NATO Summit and the one that just ended in Lisbon. Encouraging.
http://still4hill.wordpress.com/2010/11/20/hillary-clinton-at-nato-lisbon-saturday-wrap-and-slideshow/
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I could be wrong, but isn’t the *point* of *being* the President to deal with the nation’s issues, “from childhood obesity to North Korean nukes to stem cell policy to the future of GM”?
I mean, I could be wrong, but what’s the point of watering down the position?
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To make is easier for the guy who can’t do the job. Pitiful!
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I kinda liked Obama, but I’d supported Hillary since before she was Senator. In fact, she was the only candidate I donated money to during the 2008 election.
I had doubts about Obama (and those doubts have been proven correct) because 2 years in Washington does not connections make. I almost want to ask people if they have buyers remorse now!
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Well, take this meeting today for example. He did not need to wait to arrange some big official meeting. He’s the POTUS! He should, long ago have had his secretary get Boehner, McConnell and others on the phone and had a friendly chat with each. Congratulate them Congratulate Lisa Murkowski fergawdsake! Get them on your human side. He needs to be TOLD this because he doesn’t have the instinct, and even though the behavior was modeled by Bill Clinton (and Hillary) and they both said what he needed to do after these elections, he has not done it.
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I’m so with you. The only difference is that I didn’t pay too much attention to her when/ before she was a senator and I have yet to be moved to make a political donation to anyone. There’s always a first time though. 😉
My support of Hillary was based on the fact that, while both she and Obama had ideas and a vision of what they wanted to do, she seemed to already have formulated a plan for getting stuff done. I like a politician (whose platform I generally agree with) with a plan.
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Obama’s been too willing to compromise when he doesn’t have to, and too willing to not move when he should. It’s like watching an amateur log roller – misjudging when to shift and move and how fast or slow to roll.
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i love your analogy! And look at the tax-cuts. He didn’t even compromise – he caved!
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I don’t think this too often (or at least, I didn’t think this too often) but every time something big came up I would go “WWHD?”
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I usually pretty much think I know what she would do, and would have done up to this point that might have obviated the situation. What she has up her sleeves, the rest of them have not even imagined.
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I really do hope she, at the very least, considers running for President in 2012. As one of my idols (Barbara Castle) once said about Margaret Thatcher running for the leadership of the Conservative Party: “Good for her. She’s the best man among them.”
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According to the WH Insider, she is considering it.
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Good. I would think by then that, unless Obama manages to pull some rabbits out of his hat, many Democrats would turn to a proven leader and results-getter.
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Word is that he has a deadline. He wasted all of last week, cutting his window very short.
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Oy…part of me doesn’t want to deal with 2012 (since the bruising midterms are barely behind us) but part of me thinks things need to be taken care of now.
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Well, we are taking care of some things now. Some other things need to wait a little.
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Whether we like it or not the 2012 presidential race is already starting to come together. By January there will no escaping it. I have already reached my Palin Media Saturation Point and my Obama Media Saturation Point is not far off. I actually heard one pundit discussing what the plan will be after 2012 when, he prophesied, the Republicans will hold both houses of Congress and very likely the White House. He went on to outline this conservative utopia. This perpetual election cycle thing is maddening and, in my view, only serves to further polarize the country. How can we expect anyone to be bipartisan if the nation is put into a mindset of constant campaigning?
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PMSP and OMSP. Noted. I am there too.
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I don’t know how much everyone heard about the CT senate race, but I think that part of the reason Linda McMahon lost was that she was constantly, constantly sending out campaign mail. Well put together campaign mail. Very nice campaign mail, but unceasing campaign mail from well before the primaries to a few days before the general election. I thing that might have hurt her because no one likes to be pestered. And she wasn’t even asking for contributions, she was just stating (over and over) her positions on issues and why she felt Richard Blumenthal wouldn’t be a good senator. I think many Connecticut voters reached their McMahon Media Saturation Point several weeks before the election and then her massive ad blitz started to hurt her. All of a sudden her poll numbers started to go down and they never bounced back. Both Palin and Obama should take note.
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Not to mention the endless looping of the TV ads. The imitation Hillary one REALLY got on my nerves. OTOH – I miss Kirsten Gillibrand’s ad with her cutie-pie little boy.
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Pretty soon I’ll be getting 3 times the requests for campaign donations.
I’m really tired of all the “Organizing for America” crap. On top of that I get the Courage Campaign, ACLU, NARAL, Planned Parenthood, CARE, and every other liber-o-progressive group you can think of.
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I had said during the midterms that I was convinced they just wanted to see if they could crash inboxes.
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I get like 60 e-mails a day, and about 60% of them are State Department updates, and of the remaining 40%, at least 90% of that is solicitation. I don’t remember agreeing to being on many of their e-mail lists.
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