Our current occupant will be in office for another 15 months, or so, and I truly hope that no further opportunity presents itself for him to screw up. Everybody (yes, everybody, in the long run) will be better off if the man goes back to clearing shrubs on his ranch or does some other useful and harmless work, like giving motivational speeches to executives. Ours is a great nation not because of our leaders, but in spite of them, that much is certain.

Of the current crop of political candidates two stand out, in my humble opinion. There is Ron Paul on the Republican side and Barrack Obama on the Democratic side. I’ve watched Congressman Ron Paul during several interviews and a lot of the things he says (but not all of them) make good sense. Barrack Obama makes somewhat more sense and is my current favorite.

I am naturally ambivalent about anyone who runs for the office of President of the United States, because running for this office means that this person is clearly nuts: Who would want a job like that? It’s like a single guy (or girl) wanting to become the head of a completely dysfunctional family. Look at this "family":

  • The family is deeply in debt (total debt: $9 trillion, trend: increasing; that’s $30,000 for every member of the family you want to lead, including yourself), and there is no good way to get out of this debt situation. But you’ll have to do something because financing the increasing debt will eventually suffocate your family’s financial resources.
  • The family is at war with another clan (actually several wars with several clans that are heating up in intensity, e.g. in Afghanistan),
  • In order to keeps the above wars going and to feed the military wing of your family you’ll have to spend huge amounts of money just to keep these family members happy and on your good side,
  • You have to watch your back at all times in this family, as the slightest mistake will lead to backstabbing and legal proceedings by dissatisfied family members against you, because those family member don’t really like you,
  • You are beholden to other family members who helped get you into this position of leadership, but this ties your hands: You can not make any decisions without considering its impact on those members.
  • This is a low-paying job, by your standards. In fact you are on duty 24/7 for almost no pay at all.

OK, I am a single guy. If you asked me to join this family and I agreed I’d be some crazy SOB. This is why I think that those people running for president are by definition unsuited for the job. They are simply nuts to want this job in the first place. Let’s appoint our future presidents like we select members for jury duty: by lottery. Simply make a random selection among our 200 million eligible citizens and draft a woman or man to be president for 4 years to the best of her/his abilities. As with jury duty, the natural instinct of the chosen person should be to decline. After all, this person has a life and does not need this aggravation. But duty calls and she/he has to do it. It’s a temporary job for which there will be some training period, similar to the lectures you get when you are made to join up for jury duty. Think this is crazy? Can’t be worse than what we have now, can it?

good night!