Could YOU actually DO IT?

[Werewolf]

Its almost a given that most people have been asked at one time or another what would they do if they were president. I know I've been asked that question.

More often than not pretty much everyone has an answer responding with a list of things they'd do if they were president. The list runs from realistic actions to complete fantasy.

That's all fine and good but consider that if you did actually become president that the decisions you make will impact the lives of real human beings in degrees from not even noticed to the deaths of maybe thousands or millions of people.

Rational human beings are aware of the possible consequences of decisions they make and must be able to deal with them and move on with their lives or they'd go nuts.

Could you actually live with the consequences of the many decisions a president of the USA must make on daily basis? Could you make the really tough decision that would throw people out of work, send young men to their deaths, shut down corporations, sign laws that impact our liberties, taxes, health?

I used to think I could - as I grow older I grow less and less secure in that appraisal.

How about you...

[Dntsycnt]

I wouldn't want to at my age.  Give me 30 years and 3,000 more books and I might come to some conclusions I'd be happy with applying to the presidency.

[ilbob]

I'd do it. I couldn't screw it up any worse than Carter did.

[Racehorse]

Certain things I could definitely do, assuming I had the political capital to actually make it happen. Abolishing the IRS, implementing a flat tax, drilling for oil, reforming welfare, privatizing social security, etc. would not make me lose any sleep at all.

Going to war and foreign relations, I'm not so sure I could do.

[PTK]

I'd be happy to be President. I'd veto everything and try my damnedest to put the entire government into gridlock, on purpose. 

[Tallpine]

I'd be happy to be President. I'd veto everything and try my damnedest to put the entire government into gridlock, on purpose. 

Agreed.  I would do as little as possible, or even less.

Fire a bunch of people and not hire any replacements.

Ride my horse around the White House lawn 

[BlueStarLizzard]

wouldn't touch the job with a 30 foot pole.

i think i'd be much better suited as the power behind the throne.... errrr... office. 

[Bogie]

If drafted, I'd give it a shot.
 
But then again, I'm smart enough to know what I'm dumb at - surround yourself with smart people, give credit for the good stuff, and take responsibility for the  bad stuff.
 

[Ned Hamford]

give credit for the good stuff, and take responsibility for the  bad stuff.
 

I think you got that reversed 

Everyone knows the first executive order is to give Fistfull a newly created [unpaid] position.

[FTA84]

Would I do it?  Yes. I would try to return liberty to this country (restore the right of people to do what they wish).

Could I do it?  No. I am not wealthy, connected, nor from a correct family, even though I am educated.  Despite what my third grade teacher said ("Anyone can become POTUS"), I could not.

[The Annoyed Man]

I, as a citizen of the United States and member of the body of "the people," tell the president what to do.

Yet, you ask what I would do if I were demoted to President?

[Fly320s]

I could do it.  But, I sure don't want to. 

Being President is real work.  If I wanted to work, I'd go get a job.   

[Lennyjoe]

Hell yea I'd do it.

Everyone knows the first executive order is to give Fistfull a newly created [unpaid] position.

I'd even hire shootingstudent as press secretary. 

In a week he'd have all the reporters staying away from the white house like it had the plague.  Talk about a no spin zone!
(just joshing you SS)

[Werewolf]

I, as a citizen of the United States and member of the body of "the people," tell the president what to do.

Yet, you ask what I would do if I were demoted to President?

Mostly directed to everyone:

Actually that's not what I asked at all.

What I wanted to know is how many of you here could make the tough decisions the president has to make and live with your selves afterwards? NOT what would you do if you became president.

Perhaps I did a poor job communicating the query...

I don't think I could. Make those tough decisions - day in and day out - that is.

10 years ago I had risen to Director level at an international medical equipment manufacturing company. Even when I was starting out as a supervisor of Quality Assurance after leaving the Navy, I made decisions that impacted not only employees but customers and inevitably patients who got hooked up to the equipment we built. The impact of those decisions grew and grew as I rose up the ladder. By 1992 I was on track to become the VP of Manufacturing Operations. By 1993 I'd had enough. As much as I loved the job the impact decisions I made on people's lives just wore me down. Hiring, firing, do I halt manufacturing of a product due to a software defect with life and death implications or let it go and release a software fix later because I know the odds of the glitch occuring are low. Do I go ahead with making a product that marketing over estimated the market for, engineering comes up with a more efficient way to make that gadget, how many employees to I RIF as a result? The electrical union wants in, employees hate the idea but we have to let them talk and organize for 6 months, how to handle the morale issues, and on and on and on and on! Engineering, finance, production decisions all easy in comparison to those other things that occured because they just effect machines and do not usually directly impact the lives of real human beings. Call me a pussy if you will (I know I've called myself that) but it just got to the point where I didn't want to do it anymore.

Quit, went to Seagate and got a job as an accountant of all things. Just to have the same thing happen all over again - only this time because of my skill at automating reporting tasks it was hourly accounting clerks and eventually degreed accountants getting the axe.

Quit again to day trade. This time it was my wife - couldn't deal with the stress of not having Med Insurance.

Stopped day trading and became a financial analyst (just present the information - let others make the decisions) and a commodities trader for my next employer - but yet again my skills end up leading to people getting laid off because I turned full time reporting jobs into hour a week jobs (computers can do things so much faster than people).

Quit - and now I'm an analyst and all I do is report information for others to make decisions on. At least now I can rationalize that I'm not the decision maker - helps - a bit. At least for the time being anyway.

So no I couldn't make the tough decisions the President has to make. Like I said - maybe I'm a pussy of sorts. I didn't seem to have any problems with decision making during my 13 years in the military (3 Army, 10 Navy).

[seeker_two]

Sure....sounds like fun....and the girls think it's hot...(see Kennedy & Clinton)... 

[grampster]

After I changed Truman's abode in Key West into MY southern White House, I could kick back at Captain Tony's or Irish Kevins or Kelly's or Pepe's or the Bull and Whistle or The Schooner Wharf...yeah, The Schooner Wharf, that's the ticket...and make all kinds of monumental decisions in between Mojito's.

[Scout26]

Sure, I could do it.  Why ??  Because i could give a rat's patout less what anyone (especially the media) thinks of me.

Scout26's Three Point Plan of Unchanging Hopelessness.
1.  Find a bunch of smart people to be cabinet heads and give them one clear mission: One half will cut their departments by 20% each year.  The other half will just cut their departments. 
2.  Then I'd veto everything else.
3.  Don't like my nominees ??  I'll really grind everything to a halt.


Fistful will be my Press Secretary.  That way I can say it's all his fault.   

[Antibubba]

Do it?  Yes.

However, the people of the Republic would never elect me to do it, and my background would never let me get nominated.

The closest we'll ever get to seeing it was Ron Paul, and he never had a snowball's chance.

[MicroBalrog]

The closest we'll ever get to seeing it was Ron Paul, and he never had a snowball's chance.

Had he had a competent campaign team, it would have been doable.

[Bigjake]

The closest we'll ever get to seeing it was Ron Paul, and he never had a snowball's chance.

Had he had a competent campaign team, it would have been doable.

Here we go again  .


I'd have taken a page from lawdog.  Draft a letter, send it to all departments.  All they have to do to keep their jobs would be write back, in essay form, how THEIR particular department is constitutional.

[MicroBalrog]

The closest we'll ever get to seeing it was Ron Paul, and he never had a snowball's chance.

Had he had a competent campaign team, it would have been doable.

Here we go again  .


I'd have taken a page from lawdog.  Draft a letter, send it to all departments.  All they have to do to keep their jobs would be write back, in essay form, how THEIR particular department is constitutional.

Too easy.

I can do it. I can write a letter, in legalese, with Supreme Court precedents and all, 'proving' any department you wish to be constitutional. I could be wrong, but at least half the country would believe me on any given department.

As for my views on that other issue, let me refine the claim:

A "radical" conservalibertarian candidate [Ron Paul, Bob Barr, whoever], armed with a professional team, can win the US Presidency. The bottleneck is actually winning the GOP primaries.

[The Annoyed Man]

To get back to the original question, as I read it, it's not so much would you want to do the job, or how you would fix the government, but could you live with the stress of doing the job.  Day in and day out, you would be making real life and death decisions for other people.  Send troops into a hostile area, and some of them won't be coming back alive.  Sign a bill into law, and depending on the law you might be putting thousands of people out of work, taking food off the family table, sending kids to bed hungry.  Add to that the fact that people like us criticall examine every decision you make, and there's a bit of stress to the job.  Look at some of the photos of presidents in the recent decades, when media coverage became intense with photos and videos.  You can often see how much the job ages these men from the day they walked in to teh day they walked out.

In my job, I make decisions that impact people's lives.  I've taken freedom away from people.  I've taken children from parents.  I've taken property from people.  But, it's on a small scale, and I have the law and the evidence to fall back on.  As President, you often have "intelligence" to base a decision on.   Imagine trying to decide whether or not to launch cruise missiles at a suspected missile plant in TerroristLand, knowing full well there's a hospital across the street, and that there will be collateral damage.  Innocent people wil die, without question.

Could I do the job?  I think so, but I'm sure that it would eat me up in the long run.

[wmenorr67]

Could I?  Yes.

Would I?  Maybe.

Do I want to?  No, wouldn't want to subject my family to the BS.

[roo_ster]

I think Chris hit the main point, "could you live with the stress of doing the job."

That depends on how professional or amateurish your approach is.

I don't use the term "amateur" to mean unskilled or lacking in performance.  I mean it in the original sense: for the love of it or have a strong emotional investment. 

For instance, I work as an engineer and love my job (mostly) and have an emotional stake in doing well not just career-wise, but for the men who will put our products to use.  In that respect, I am kinda amateurish.

I also have to help make the hard decisions: trade cost vs performance, need vs want, etc.  This is a more professional attitude, realizing that resources are finite and determining if a given tool or functionality is worth not only the dollars, but the other tool/functionality sacrificed to procure this one.  IOW, opportunity cost.

I understand that some guy, on the margin, might get killed because I determine that the extra smidgen of performance is not worth the dollars.  I just try to do my level best to have integrity, be honest, and produce the best analysis & guidance I can.  The other ten guys who live, but who would have died without the new performance, outweigh the one poor SOB who died on the margin.

I am mortal and limited.  God is immortal and omnipotent.  I figure I will bear a limited burden and do he best I can with what I have to work with...and then move on.  God can bear the burden of all that is beyond my abilities.

[MechAg94]

If drafted, I'd give it a shot.
 
But then again, I'm smart enough to know what I'm dumb at - surround yourself with smart people, give credit for the good stuff, and take responsibility for the  bad stuff.
 

But if you did that, the media and all the people who hated you would say you were stupid and were letting a cabal of unelected people run the govt.  You have to be some sort of workaholic control freak these days for people think you are doing anything.  No one recognizes leadership or delegation anymore.