Tuesday, October 10, 2006

My ideal presidential candidate.


Over at Conversation at the Edge, back in August, there was a post along these lines: "Describe your ideal candidate for president of the U.S. in 2008". So I responsded, and I thought I'd post my response here. Let me just say that since there is no way I'm gonna find anyone to vote for who actually fulfills all my criteria, right now I'm going with the best option I can find, and joining others to urge Jeffrey Sachs to run for president. Following is my off-the-cuff description of my ideal presidential candidate for '08.
I would want a president who did not want to be president. I think we should have a draft for president, where you have to serve if you are drafted and elected. I want a president who has lived for at least two years outside the U.S., and ideally outside the west. I want a president who speaks at least 3 languages fluently. I want a president who is committed to reducing U.S. prison population (and not by killing them). I want a president who is committed to bringing universal health care to the United States. I want a president who wants to tear down, rather than build more, the wall between Mexico and the U.S. I want a president who thinks the one campaign is a brilliant idea. I want a president who has zero connections with big oil companies and big arms companies, and who would be thrilled to see arms companies go out of business (like reliant techsystems, for instance, or big chunks of honeywell). I want a president who will find a way to channel U.S. dollars to quickly clean up the UXO problem in countries where we’ve created that problem (laos, for instance, and vietnam), even though those countries don’t want money connected to the U.S. government for this purpose (understandably so!). I want a president who is committed to reducing the portion of the federal budget that goes to “defense” by 50%. I want a president who wants to spend more on higher education than we do on offense (oops, did I say “offense”–I guess that would be “defense”). I want a president whose ardor for professional sports is prioritatively similar to my own (I suppose you can guess what that means). I want a president who is not ashamed of the fact that she is a recovering ___________ and who feels at home in a 12 step meeting. I want a president who is totally committed to cutting world nuclear weapon stockpiles in half during his one term, starting here. I want a president who cannot be convinced to run for a second term.
I'd love to hear a description of your ideal U.S. presidential candidate in 2008

1 comment:

byron smith said...

Great post. Quite apart from the policy proposals, I think the mandatory languages and travel an excellent idea.