Would any of you reallly want to be a US President now?
by mkovac (2024-01-23 14:43:29)
Edited on 2024-01-23 15:30:44
Cannot Reply Return to Political

Everyone's on your ass, 24/7.

The party that's out of power is nipping at your heels like a pack of African Wild Dogs.

The press is a cadre of vampire bats wanting blood. Then, you are driven into speechlessness when they strike and hit a vein or an artery, by asking a "gotcha" question that reveals some dark secret of your past, such as the time you ate glue in Kindergarten or when you peeled rubber leaving the high school parking lot in your Camaro with that stripper painted on your hood and you ran over that lady's poodle that had just gotten out of the front door and was running after the mailman. And then, they bug the crap out of you and make you re-phrase the word "mailman" to "personperson" and you just want to flip them off and go inside and eat some Dinty Moore stew and watch your college team play football.

Yeah, power is the ultimate aphrodesiac but if you aren't sniffing glue on power and all you want is to do some good and feed the hungry and house the homeless, but you are told that by the time your budget funds Social Security, Medicare, and pays into state funds that help take care of the underserved, all you are really fighting over is the amount of money it takes to heat and cool the Smithsonian.

So, Mister or Miss or Mrs. or "they" America, do you really want this job?

Yes, but "they" will either kill me or villify me. *
by The Flash  (2024-01-25 14:07:20)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Cannot reply

I would but both parties would hate me.
by OITLinebacker  (2024-01-24 23:15:04)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Cannot reply

A social liberal who would only allow medical abortions. To go with that, universal free child care and a complete gutting of the medical insurance industry: their profits would be capped at 1% above the rate of inflation or face a 100% tax for said profits and no more kick backs to the pharmaceutical industry for them. A fiscal conservative who wants to raise taxes for the top 20% of earners and tax corporate profit margins with extreme penalties for any company whose top employee makes more than 100x their lowest employee. I'd increase aid to Ukraine, and would warn Putin that the US will increase the aid each month until he withdraws all forces to the pre-war borders. Further, if he does not withdraw within a year, that the US would support the Ukraine taking back it's old Soviet borders along with Kaliningrad. The Southern border would see an increase in border patrols along with aid to Mexico that would depend on the ability for US Border Patrol to partner with the Mexican Border Patrol with the goal of reduction of illegal crossing and smuggling by preventing them from even getting within sight of the border. I would disallow any elected federal official from owning or trading stock (their "investments" can be in index funds or the bond market). All members of the federal government would receive the same health care and retirement packages: from the lowliest private in the army, to the postal service, to congress, to the president. No more special privileges for simply being a politician.

I can only imagine that I would be impeached within 2 months with every senator finding me guilty of something or another.

I’ll accept the job as POTUS…
by Bacchus  (2024-01-23 21:45:12)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Cannot reply

…but there’s no way I’ll accept the job as president of my HOA.
POTD *
by The Flash  (2024-01-25 14:08:10)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Cannot reply

It is my privilege to extend to you a laurel & hardy handsha
by Drmurray  (2024-01-24 07:17:02)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Cannot reply

ke
Yes, I would, for the same reasons....
by Marine Domer  (2024-01-23 18:34:21)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Cannot reply

I ran for office in the first place, or why I joined the Marine Corps. I feel a sense of duty to my Country, and believe I could do a lot of good in that office, especially if I could magically get transported into the office without the compromises so many politicians are more or less forced to make to even become viable candidates for the office. I think I could do the job better than either the current President or the last one, and would be willing to make the sacrifices that would entail. Alas, the last couple of years have made me more of a realist and less of a dreaming idealist.

But is it a difficult, shitty job at times? Sure. Then again, so is being a firefighter, or a cop, or a combat soldier, or an ER doctor, etc.
Nice house, good staff, private plane and lots of vacation
by dbldomer7375  (2024-01-23 17:15:04)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Cannot reply

Sure, why not?
Yep.
by NDBass  (2024-01-23 15:55:20)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Cannot reply

Give me that $400,000 salary plus other expenditure accounts for four years and then a pension of ~$230,000 per year.
I'm too old *
by ufl  (2024-01-23 15:10:14)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Cannot reply

That's obviously not a disqualifier. *
by Rockbrig97  (2024-01-23 15:26:12)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Cannot reply

It should be *
by ufl  (2024-01-23 16:06:46)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Cannot reply

I'd be interested if the role were Benevolent Dictator
by Raoul  (2024-01-23 15:09:49)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Cannot reply

No interest in the role as defined by the US Constitution.

I have that job.
by BottleofRed  (2024-01-23 16:55:18)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Cannot reply

I quite enjoy it.
You could be one of the very few ever
by sprack  (2024-01-23 16:42:45)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Cannot reply

The list of benevolent dictators in history is about as small as the list of World-renowned Irish Chefs.

Possibly Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Simón Bolívar, Lee Kwan Yew and a few other rare examples.
Sounds familiar.
by ocnd  (2024-01-23 16:26:24)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Cannot reply

Except probably not benevolent.

I don't even want to do local politics here
by ravenium  (2024-01-23 15:09:43)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Cannot reply

One of the local council (and a mayoral candidate for this fall) had his car set on fire because he had a position that someone disagreed with.

Over the past few years our mayor has been punched, people have set fire to shit on lawns, and people have been harassed because they didn't agree with somebody. Screw that.

(Whether it's left or right fringe depends on your location and time of year, but let's just say I have a passionate dislike for the tips of the horse shoe)

Then again, I couldn't begin to muster the intestinal fortitude that people like McCain and Obama did when answering even town hall questions from loons, so I think I'm out already.
I used to say local politics were worse beause the stakes
by wpkirish  (2024-01-23 15:19:39)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Cannot reply

were so small. I represented one tine (300) person town where the Board meetings would drag on for hours. The fight was always between rival factions who passed control back and forth. Like many small towns there wasnt anythign for the kids to do. So one group started a teen center in the Village Hall which was the former grade school.

They wanted to have candy for the kids to purcahse so the VIllage gave them a couple hundred dollars. The fols running it went to Wal-mart and bought a bunch of candy. They would let the kids take a handful of hershey kisses or similar products for 25 cents. I am not kidding when I tell you there were multiple meetings over how the operators were handling the penny candy and how the Village would ever pass an audit if they could not account for all the candy.

Recently my 80 year old father was harassed and called a traitor by people he has know their entire lives because he chaired the board that recommended rezoning a parcel of land to manufacture electirc vehicle batteries paying above average wages for the market and employing 2600 people.. His sin was the parent is a Chinese company. VW owns 10% of the company and i am pretty certain I would find a lot Chinese manufactured goods in the opponents houses starting with their cell phones.

Good Lord. Where is "here"? *
by FL_Irish  (2024-01-23 15:10:38)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Cannot reply

I'd do a better job than Biden or Trump
by mintirish  (2024-01-23 15:09:27)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Cannot reply

and that lady's poodle really ran out of the building fast, nothing I could do. Slammed on the brakes, but it just wasn't in time.

And of course, no sane, non narcissist wants to be POTUS.