On the makings of a good president
Author David McCullough: “Every presidential election is a renewal…Like spring, it brings up all the juices. The people are so tired of contrivance and fabrication and hokum. They really want to be stirred in their spirit. That’s when we are at our best. The great presidents are people who caused those who follow them to do more than they thought they were capable of.”
Professor Cornel West: “The American people want a statesman who will tell the truth about our collective life together, good and bad, up and down, vices and virtues. That is the ultimate act of respect for the American people.”
Author William F. Buckley: “What a successful president does is transcend the usual marketplace collisions. FDR accomplished that, and so did Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson. A successful president isn’t necessarily one who takes us in a direction I applaud. But he is somebody who does get the country excited about a political purpose.”
Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin: “We need to get away from a political system that is so filled with minute public opinion polls and focus groups and the ability to know what the electorate is thinking at every moment that the leader loses his instincts for boldness. The job is not simply to reflect current opinion but to challenge it, move it forward and shape it. The ability to just take a stand and know that you can move the country to that stand is a lost art we need to recapture.”
Sen. John McCain: On JFK’s speech proposing the Peace Corps: “Young people were willing to live in a village hut in Africa for years and dig irrigation ditches. Why were they willing to do that? Why were they in fact eager to do that? It’s because he inspired them to do it.”
[...] I started poking around my feeds on Netvibes, and I stumbled on an article linked to the blog at Glass Booth that discusses the makings of a good president, stopping with a quote from John McCain about how [...]
The best way to sellect a President is:
1- There voting record by the news they recieve…
2- How they talk on the topic most important to you…
3- What sources they get their speeches…
4- How they take whats said about them by other candidates… How they answer what is said!!!
5- By what people vote for the candidate… It bothers me if the other party vote for a candidate!!! Are they doing it because they like the person… Are they trying to fix the election???
6- How will they talk on the policies that mean the most to me…
7- How they are in debates…
I think the thing that makes a good president is what they want to do for our country. I dont think that it should be about the voting record. we all make mistakes and if they did then i might be shown on there voting record. It should be about there ideas and how well the match yours. So a
good president is someone with the same ideas as you have.
I am excited about the candidates. I am also interested in the results from my test that I just took. I have taken several times and I come up with the same person. I knew I liked their style, their beliefs all of which gives me some hope for the future. As a medical professional I have seen the plight of healthcare and how it impacts both those who have insurance and those who don’t. We are using ER’s like private physican offices and eventually many ER’s will be closing for lack of funding. Then where will everyone go for care? As frightening is where will those who can afford it go? Our dollar provides us less and less and we pay for more with our tax dollars. Please who ever you are get our nation back to the time where there is less taxes, affordable healthcare and hope for a world with peace. A big task for anyone. I pray for you.