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2008 Presidential Poll
[Poll #1141747]
Additional Questions -
1. If you were to pick one critical issue, what would it be?
2. Who was your favorite American President?
3. Who is your least favorite American President?
4. Who is your favorite world leader?
5. What Country would you like to live in and would feel safest in?
6. What criteria do you use when selecting a leader or President? What is most important?
Character? Ability? Background? Experience? If Experience - how much do they need?
7. How much weight do you put on what someone does or does not do in their personal life or non-public life? (ex. Cheats on their spouse. Smokes pot in college. Etc.)
8. Do you vote with your gut or your head?
9. Does it matter to you if the candidate is religious?
Does it matter if they have a wife/husband and kids?
10. To what extent does race, gender, sexual orientation, or nationality affect your decision?
11. Experience? What do you consider the necessary amount or level of experience to do the job of President?
[My answers to the above are posted as response to this post]
Additional Questions -
1. If you were to pick one critical issue, what would it be?
2. Who was your favorite American President?
3. Who is your least favorite American President?
4. Who is your favorite world leader?
5. What Country would you like to live in and would feel safest in?
6. What criteria do you use when selecting a leader or President? What is most important?
Character? Ability? Background? Experience? If Experience - how much do they need?
7. How much weight do you put on what someone does or does not do in their personal life or non-public life? (ex. Cheats on their spouse. Smokes pot in college. Etc.)
8. Do you vote with your gut or your head?
9. Does it matter to you if the candidate is religious?
Does it matter if they have a wife/husband and kids?
10. To what extent does race, gender, sexual orientation, or nationality affect your decision?
11. Experience? What do you consider the necessary amount or level of experience to do the job of President?
[My answers to the above are posted as response to this post]
My answers
Hard one. Right now - probably a tie between the economy and the environment - which I believe are linked. So is the War for that matter - which has a huge effect on both the environment and the economy.
2. Who was your favorite American President?
At the moment? Franklin Delanor Roosevelt
3. Who is your least favorite American President?
George W. Bush
4. Who is your favorite world leader?
Hmmm...I'm not sure I like anyone right now.
5. What Country would you like to live in and would feel safest in?
New Zealand or Canada, although feel more or less safe in the US (was tempted to do a poll to see how many people picked Canada).
6. What criteria do you use when selecting a leader or President? What is most important?
Character? Ability? Background? Experience? If Experience - how much do they need?
For me - it's a combo of character/philosophy/ability and experience.
I'm reluctant to push one above the others.
But, I do think experience is a determining factor and prefer someone with Senate to Governor or Mayor. Also, I'd put a greater weight on philosophy, ability and experience than character - since character tends to be more subjective.
7. How much weight do you put on what someone does or does not do in their personal life or non-public life? (ex. Cheats on their spouse. Smokes pot in college. Etc.)
Very little weight. They'd have to have done something that would or could have put them in jail for me to care.
8. Do you vote with your gut or your head?
a little bit of both
9. Does it matter to you if the candidate is religious? No, well wait - I care if they are evangelical or feel the need to impose their religious views on the rest of us.
Does it matter if they have a wife/husband and kids? Nope
10. To what extent does race, gender, sexual orientation, or nationality affect your decision? None. Don't care if they are blue and have spots.
11. Experience? What do you consider the necessary amount or level of experience to do the job of President?
Should have done at least two terms of government service either as a senator, congressman, or governor - with a voting record. Prefer service in the Federal Government since it is different than the States. Both works really well - since you know the difference between the two and where they disagree.
your answers
1. I might just go w/the war at the moment.
2. FDR is a great choice
3. It is amazing to say, but I actually think George W. Bush has done more damage to this country than either Nixon or Reagan (and I seriously despise both of them).
4. I also have trouble thinking of any world leader I really admire, I kinda love Churchill, but I'm sure you meant someone current, and there are probably bad things about him I'm unaware of.
5. Canada
6. intelligence and a capability to listen to others and learn (not that I'm in any position to really know if any of them have these qualities).
7. very little weight
8. I hope with both
9. no, I don't have any great faith in religious people being any better than an atheist.
10. no, I don't care about this at all.
11. frankly I don't think someone rises to the point of being able to make a run for the Presidency without some experience. Oh you'll get some crack pots like Ralph Nader or Ross Perot, but very few voters will actually take them seriously. So in my opinion the ability to get votes is in itself a kind of verification of an ability to lead. JMPO
Re: your answers
Yeah, sigh, Nader. My brother voted for Nader.
Last year, I think he broke with tradition and voted for Kerry. I've been resisting getting into a political argument with my brother.
Like your answer to #6. "Capability to Listen" is a biggie. Very hard to do - listen to someone you don't agree with and be able to see their pov, yet incredibly vital in a leader - particularly one who has to deal with other leaders.
Heh, yeah, Churchill had his dark side. So did FDR, I found out recently or rather was reminded of by Obama of all people, in Obama's book. FDR approved the internment of Japanese and Italian Americans during WWII.
Far from perfect. And there were people who hated FDR much like we hate Bush, my grandparents did. I think it's the only time my grandmother voted - to vote against FDR.
When my parents first dated they'd have vehement debates about him. LOL! Yet, he's still my favorite - and he managed to pull off a difficult feat, turn the country around during a depression, ensure there wouldn't be another one, and aid England in WWII, even when we weren't supposed to be involved. (Sort of on the sly, until something happened major enough to convince Congress to vote for it.)
Re: your answers
I do have to say, in your brother's defense, that there is a purpose and value in third parties. When the two parties become too much alike, taking money from the same lobbyists so that both parties are in the pockets of the same special interests, then third parties are the only way that citizens can voice their desire for change. Throughout the political process the two parties have done everything possible to legislate difficulties preventing third party candidates from getting on the ballot, and from getting matching funds. I really feel that one of the changes I would like to see in this country is to open up the process more, and make it easier to let dissenting voices be heard. My Father voted for Dick Gregory in 1968 because he was the only anti-war candidate (both Nixon and Humphrey were committed to continuing in Vietnam), and I have to respect that wasted vote.
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2. Franklin Roosevelt--he took us the way we need to go. A man of great courage.
3. George W. Bush. A fool.
4. His Holiness the Dalai Lama
5. Hmmm. The countries where I'd feel safe aren't necessarily the ones where I want to live. I'm sure Switzerland is secure, but India and Mexico call me.
6. Different criteria at different times. I always want someone progressive, and right now lean towards the charismatic.
7. Personal life--not important. I think you can be a good leader and an unpleasant person. But do value honesty.
8. Combination.
9. No. No.
10. Not a lot, but would love to see someone from a previously excluded group get in--both women and blacks in this category.
11. Doubt anything really prepares a person for that job, but maybe background as a governor (but not of Texas!)
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Interesting - India and Mexico...why? Is it the culture? Or the landscape? Or both?
I've been to one but not the other...didn't much like Mexico - too dry (not a fan of deserts, I'm afraid, I can never breath in them).
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2. Who was your favorite American President?
Dwight Eisenhower. The press hated the guy, but when you see all the threads holding this country together that trace back to the 1950s and Eisenhower himself, you can see he's rarely been credited with being the farsighted political leader he was.
3. Who is your least favorite American President? That would be Lyndon Blockhead Johnson. His whole presidency seemed to be an exercise in showing the world he could get done all the things John Kennedy couldn't. Half the time doing so was a mistake. Like getting the military fully involved in Vietnam.
5. What Country would you like to live in and would feel safest in? I'm not sure I'd feel safe anywhere anymore. I like living where I do, though there are other fine countries I been in I'd be satisfied with.
6. What criteria do you use when selecting a leader or President? What is most important?
Character? Ability? Background? Experience? If Experience - how much do they need? I want to say experience, but the kind of experience is important. John Kennedy and Jimmy Carter both had high ideals, but were not great as presidents. Kennedy had experience in Federal government and Carter didn't. High ideals don't matter much when things go terribly wrong. Looking from the other side at a couple of Presidents who weren't looking to the future, Cal Coolidge had experience, Warren Harding had little. Neither had any concept of the world that was changing around them and were useless Presidents.
7. How much weight do you put on what someone does or does not do in their personal life or non-public life? (ex. Cheats on their spouse. Smokes pot in college. Etc.) I don't know about younger people, but it would be surprising to find many politicians my age who didn't smoke pot in college. Cheating on one's spouse isn't my business. Lying about those things or anything else under oath is a different matter.
8. Do you vote with your gut or your head?
Voting with your gut is a great way to get punched in the gut. Voting with your head is tough when both parties have candidates chosen by people who voted with their gut.
9. Does it matter to you if the candidate is religious? I once thought it wouldn't. But I think if some religions are too set in their ways of thinking about things that the times show we need to be flexible about, then the candidates religion should matter.
Does it matter if they have a wife/husband and kids? No
10. To what extent does race, gender, sexual orientation, or nationality affect your decision? Very little
11. Experience? What do you consider the necessary amount or level of experience to do the job of President? I think the president should have some diplomatic experience, some serious time spent working directly on large scale budgets, some knowledge of military matters, some knowledge of espionage (it's benefits as well as it's limitations), some knowledge of the inner workings of State and local government, some of this, some of that. In other words the best person would be several hundred years old, with the experience to see the long term picture but still be flexible enough to adapt to day to day changes in the world. We're not going to find to many of those people.
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LBJ as your worste surprised me a bit. Eisenhower as the best equally so.