If I Were President

People can't keep too many things in their head, especially when it comes to politics. If you were to give an outline of what Obama or Clinton or McCain believes in, you might be hard-pressed to answer. On the one hand, candidates feel the need to have some things of what they want to do, just to show they aren't all talk. In the end, it comes down to personality, and a broad sense of what the person will do.

For example, most people will point out that Obama and Clinton have generally voted similarly, except on a few things, in particular, the Iraq war. Admittedly, for a war, it feels less like a war than an invasion.

Politics is often about making people hate your opponent, rather than love you. In particular, while Obama fans are particularly swayed by his rhetoric, that he inspires, even if he may feel short on substance. Still, Hillary is so polarizing, that many people hate her more than they love Obama, though, to be fair, Obama is getting more love than most politicians.

But it shows the way we are as citizens. We want to be inspired by the president, rather than to look at his qualifications. Indeed, people probably felt more comfortable with Bush than Kerry, but in hindsight, would they say they had made a terrible misjudgment? And how else were they to judge Bush? Bush used the tactic of a strong America, the fight against terrorism. He pushed the ideas of Reagan, and a general vague theme that "strong is good", and many people were swayed by that. It goes back to the idea that Reagan was "strong" and Mondale is a "wimp".

People often say there are two parts to being President (or any politician). There's campaigning, which is to convince you, the voter, to vote for the person. The other is governing. This would seem like two different skills, and yet, people are typically swayed by the campaigning. With television, your visual appearance and demeanor is far more important now than it was in the past.

One issue you hear about, and I find it to be totally strange is the notion of the President as "Commander in Chief", as if they were expected to be some kind of military leader. I feel that title should mean, not so much that the President is a leader, but that the military is subservient to the Presidency, and by that, I mean, that we don't live under military rule, and that the military wouldn't stage a coup. They are a branch that serves.

The question is often asked to make a distinction between Democrats and Republicans with Republicans, especially neo-conservatives, feeling the need to establish the US as a world superpower through military dominance, by being, in effect, the world's policeman. It's silly because no one expects the President to have to make specific military decisions, although he might, with consultants, decide whether the US should be engaged in military actions as a whole.

The other funny aspect about running for President is money. Even bright folks seem to concede that money is terribly important. No one feels bad about Obama raising 30 million dollars a month to run a campaign. No one says that this money is ridiculous to run a campaign, but that it reflects the cost of putting ads up (after all, why would radio stations place the ads for free? We're a capitalistic democracy, and someone should make money on that!).

And what else? Campaigning works! Why must Hillary and Obama travel state to state? Because people are ready to change their minds after they hear a speech! Because they've done little research on their own, and expect the candidate's admittedly biased stance to help them decide. Presidential candidates have become rock stars!

It's funny, but a show like Batman made a rather cynical show about politicking. Penguin decides he wants to be mayor of Gotham City. To fight this, Batman decides he must run as well. Batman's speeches are boring. He says "We must talk about the issues, because the issues are important. The issues are what we must focus on", and so he talks about talking about the issues, but never talks about the issues.

Meanwhile, Penguin is kissing babies, and having parties, and so forth, and basically saying he's one fun guy, and has no other platform besides that. He ends up losing, and blames the pollsters for giving him bad information. That episode does a great job of making fun of politics.

Republicans try to keep their message simple. Strong military. Cut taxes. Religious conservatism. They hammer that message over and over again, not willing to adapt to the situations. Simple-minded ideas for a simple-minded populace (oh yeah, don't forget capital gains tax cuts!).

Democrats don't have a particularly simple message. More money for the middle class. The rich are too rich. Let's all get along. The government can help.

As many political scientists lament, we might get a better democracy if people were willing to be better citizens. But that takes work, and when you're life is running reasonably OK regardless of who the President is, then there's less incentive to care.