I know people liked it how Bush 'talked to them' and not at them, and he was someone that you could have a beer with (or, more accurately, a near beer)..and how some people like how Palin is a "hawkee mom" and talks to "Joe Six Pack", etc.. It got me thinking. Do we really want to have a "Joe Six Pack" type VP? I want someone who's smarter than me as President and VP. I want someone who doesn't feel the need to flaunt a small town mentality as though it's better. I want someone who comes off a little elitist (for gods sake, they're running for President). I don't want someone I feel I can sit down with and have a beer with...they're the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES for fucks sake. I don't want someone who sounds like I do when I talk. I want someone who knows what he's talking about, and doesn't feel the need to talk to me like I'm some kind of idiot who doesn't understand big words or is incapable of using a search engine. Both candidates do this, but one is doing it a lot more and I wish they wouldn't. Joe Six Pack, Hockey mom, dontcha know.. Please, stop. I'm an adult, and I'm educated. I don't need this kind of crap.
I would want someone with leadership experience. Something like a governorship or the CEO of a major company. I mean, which presidents have become presidents with only congressional experience? Its like having a middle level manager at a company run it. As far as "Joe Six-Pack" is concerned, yeah, I don't want "Joe Six-Pack" to run the country.
I don't enjoy bumbling idiots running the country. HOwever, I think that people can lead effectively while still being in tune with the people. I really liked MIke Huckabee in the republican primaries. He knew the issues, he was very "folksy" and came across really well. I don't think the issues you mentioned in your diatribe are mutually exclusive.
Our politics reflects our society. We are now so heavily marketed to that we can't imagine buying anything that doesn't closely resemble our own personal identities. You buy Jordans because there's something about Mike you identify with. You buy Marlboros because there's a little cowboy in you. You don't buy minivans because you aren't a soccer mom (even though it'd be a lot more convenient and cheaper than owning the Rugged Individualist SUV). It used to be that you chose the most qualified politician, and now you choose the politician who most closely resembles you. Which explains the success of people like Bush and Palin and Hillary, and the failure of people like Kerry and Gore. Even Obama's success is a result of this projecting--we want to believe we're all so much more level-headed and diverse. Conservatives sneer at the "latte-drinking" elitists, not recognizing there's a Starbucks on every corner and a Prius in a lot of driveways. I remember watching pundits snear at Obama's arugala comment, and I looked down at my craft beer, my $7 cigar, and the takeout Indian food I was eating and thinking, "Huh, I wonder what you cook with arugala? Maybe I ought to look into that." And I live in Idaho, fercrissakes. At some point, though, somebody is bound to point out that while Bush sounds like any of a hundred cowboy Westerns (cool!), Palin really sounds like the pregnant cop from Fargo. Fargo is a great movie, but does anybody really want to project themselves into that role?
The only thing that scares me in a presidential candidate is ideological extremism (both left and right) and if I get the feeling that I'm probably smarter than them (or at least more informed and/or educated). This is a big, complicated country with big complicated issues pressing down on it, and I for one would rather see us get away from this purile need to "relate" to our candidates -- I don't want to drink beer with them (I drink alone and in the dark). But then again I'm a slightly, left leaning, elitist bastard and I probably don't reflect or represent the wishes and desires of "Joe Sixpack" all that much.
The government isn't run by the president, it's run by a bunch of career civil service workers managed by a handful of administration appointees. So it really does boil down to who you'd rather watch on TV making speeches.
don't like the answer, so you change the question. Whatever. It's unclear to me whether we are talkling about credentials for VP or for president. I'll assume the former (since this was brought up under the Palin umbrella) and go with Harry Truman, Gerald Ford and Richard Nixon. If you are solely interested in credentials for a presidential candidate, I'll probably go with JFK. How about Herbert Hoover? Taft? Warren Harding?
I don't recall saying the government is "run" by the president, but between matters of state, international relations, and supreme court nominees (amongst others) I'd say a candidate's qualities, judgment, "smarts," and temperament can have a huge impact on the direction our country takes -- a president's power isn't absolute, but it is profound.
it's not as rare for a VP to be a sitting senator, though. Some of them eventually become president. I'm not sure how that counts in this exercise.
