Just Like Me -- I Hope Not

Watching the elite bashing during this year's presidential campaign reminds me of Carl and Allie. They were two of my lobstermen friends from my childhood summers in Maine. Every June when I returned to the village, Carl and Allie said, "Another year of school, you sure got stupider." I knew they were kidding (sort of).

Carl, Allie, and I always had a good-natured laugh over a beer, but there is nothing funny about the way education and intelligence are being disparaged in American politics today. I know, I know: anti-intellectualism has a long history in the US. And, like many Americans, I also find many of the media elites to be intolerable, condescending know-it-alls who seem to have no shame even when they're consistently wrong (remember Hilary's inevitability?).

I understand all of that, but for the life of me, I don't get it when people say they want someone just like them to be president.

The mayor of Scranton recently said about Obama: "They don't know him. Who'd you want to have a beer with? Who'd you leave your kids with?" Huh? I'm not looking for a beer buddy or a baby sitter. I'm looking for a president who knows a lot more than I do about how to get out of the mess we're in.

Shades of 2000, when George Bush's handlers did such a masterful job of juxtaposing "good ole boy W" against that "egghead stiff Al Gore." And then there's Sarah Palin, poster star for "everywoman" -- five kids, hunky husband, moosehunter, and now possibly a heartbeat away, even though her biggest selling point seems to be that she is NOT qualified to be president ("Take that, elites").

Call me out of step, but I want a president who's better than me... who's smarter, wiser, more experienced, with better judgment. Someone who wants to work 24-7 and is ready and willing to answer that scary red phone at 3am (which I imagine would be hard to do if you've been drinking beer all night).

Of course, I want a president who's empathetic about the challenges facing working families and the under-privileged. But what good is empathy if the president doesn't also have the expertise to help them?

I want a president who can energize people with his or her ideas... who can help us see around the next bend, over the next hill and through the fog... who knows how to hire good people and keep them focused on what matters most.

I want someone who's willing to wrestle with issues that seem to have no easy solution -- balancing our traditional openness with the obvious need to guard against terrorists; spending enough to jumpstart the economy without adding too much to our national debt ($10 trillion and counting); convincing Americans to pay more for gas now so we can start weaning ourselves from the oil dictators of the Middle East and Russia; figuring out how to pay for the boomer generation's retirements without bankrupting our kids and their kids; and on and on.

It's called leadership.

I have lots of friends I like to hang out and drink beer with. But no offense, I sure don't want them to be president.

Comments

[blaqntelligence]

THANK YOU!!!!!
I've posted this before and will post it again if necessary.

I agree wholeheartedly. I want a brilliant, elite, educated, well-traveled, experienced, person as my president and vice president.
I don't want to feel familiar or comfortable enough to slap them on the back or have a beer with them, to scratch or belch in their presence.
I don't want to feel comfortable enough to invite them over for dinner.
I want to know my president can confidently navigate through situations I have no clue how to handle. My president and vp must know far more than I do.
My president must understand the gravity of the responsibilities he or she assume when they are president.
Above all, my president must respect me enough to talk to me like an adult.
Anything less will not get my vote.