Storms & Sniffles
I’ve been watching Invest 97L which should be a tropical something tomorrow. It is heading for the Caribbean along the northern coast of South America.
Of course the big question is why no one gave Drumpf a Sudafed. A bad microphone? Come on. Clinton was apparently over prepared as usual, and Trump was doing his stream of unconsciousness babbling.
Why not do something radical – a real debate on a stated topic in the standard competitive format, or at least a timer that shuts off microphones.
12 comments
I don’t get this “overprepared” thing. Really? Overprepared?
For the job of President of the United States of America?
Seems to me that a President should be overprepared for any challenges that come her way. Only silly and stupid people would think otherwise, people for whom the slogan “Ignorance is Strength” from the novel 1984 is a prescriptive, not a warning.
Over prepared for a 90 minute debate against someone who believes he’s the smartest guy on the planet. Debates and most of what goes on during campaigns have nothing to do with the actual job of President. Looking back at my half century+ of adulthood, the job of the President tends to change with every new occupant.
Let’s just say that if North Korea decides to fire a missile over Japan again, I want someone who will overprepare by learning as much about North Korea and its interactions with the world as possible (including the thousands of artillery tubes it has pointed at Seoul) before deciding on a course of action, not someone who will say “That’s it, nuke’em!”. Personality traits like overpreparing aren’t a debate-only thing.
She needs to understand that this is a marathon, not a sprint, select a competent cabinet and let them do their jobs. She approaches the Jimmy Carter level of micro-management. None of this is why I won’t vote for her.
If you care, Trump lost votes among my rightwing fundie friends and neighbors because of his ‘debate’ performance. They hadn’t said they were going to vote for him, but out of the blue they made it clear that that they would vote for Johnson.
On the other hand, if you’re not willing to do the prep to know that your cabinet is doing their job, then you end up with Donald Rumsfeld incompetently managing a war and the supposed President not having a clue that there’s a difference between Shia and Sunni thus having no clue that Rumsfeld’s failure to plan the aftermath was, uhm, stupid. Bill was sometimes accused of micromanaging but by and large he did a pretty good job of balancing delegation and managing. He micromanaged situations that could result in shit blowing up, and let his cabinet handle situations that didn’t rise to that level. Hillary ain’t Bill, but she has a darn good advisor to help her tell the difference between things that need that level of management, and things that don’t.
If it makes you happy to think that having Bill Clinton advising the President, go for it. It wasn’t as bad as Reagan, but he did his part to screw up the economy and push the profits to the one percent. He was better on foreign policy than almost any President since I’ve been voting, but he didn’t do working people any favors..
Given that Trumpf interrupted Clinton’s time allotments literally 3.0 times as often as Clinton interrupted him (look it up; someone counted, and it was Clinton 17, Trumpf 51), an automatic shutoff on Trumpf’s mic would probably be sufficient.
Maybe I should be embarrassed, but I miss Jimmy Carter…
Oh, yes, Steve, there is nothing worst than having a veteran, engineer, and farmer in the White House who could hammer out peace deals between the Israelis and Palestinians. A man who was working on reducing our carbon footprint before most of the world realized it was important.
In many ways he has been able to get more done as a former President.
I know what you mean.
Bryan, we’ve been fortunate to have so few technophobes in the White House (Dubya comes to mind, but even his failure to operate a Segway wasn’t fatal to the nation).
But sometimes I wish every president could be urged to study and pass minimal tests on
* what keeps a fixed-wing aircraft in flight (I speak as one who the world should be grateful has never grasped the controls of an aircraft in motion) and, separately, anything in Earth orbit,
* the basics of all matters nuclear (power plants, bombs, nuclear medicine, etc.),
* the fundamentals of public health (including epidemiology) at the level required to make or at least guide good decisions on behalf of society, etc.
That’s for presidents whose background is NOT in the sciences or engineering. For those who have backgrounds ONLY in the sciences, the test would still be at a minimal level, but the subject matter would be a bit different:
* American English grammar (no more GeeDubya-style speeches),
* American government and law (why do I even have to list this? why can a president get away with mumbling “freedom ‘n’ democ’r’cy” a dozen times in a speech without being able to explain the inherent conflicts between the two concepts?)
* superficial acquaintance with literature, art and dance forms pursued by every major human culture and ethnicity common to (at least) American society,
* ditto every culture’s principal musical forms (given how ubiquitous sonata form is in Western music history, it would be nice if a president had at least heard of it; 12-bar blues and the most common major subdivisions of pop, rock and jazz… s/he wouldn’t have to LIKE them all, only to be conversant with them), again to a degree enabling good judgment on guvmint involvement,
etc. etc.
It’s not much to ask. No one would accept an American president who did not speak American English competently (though Dubya came close to not doing even that); why should we accept a president with not even a passing acquaintance with the basic facets of all of America’s cultures?
Here ends the rant for the day… more on Carter another time.
As a Texan you know that a lot of the Shrubbery’s problems with English were part of the persona he adopted for politics.
The Constitution restricts us to requiring Presidents to be native born Americans at least 35 years old. There are absolutely no educational requirements. Even being able to pass high school courses would help.
Ohhhh… the comments I could make! This is like giving me a loaded gun! 👿
However, I will settle for: I’d think any sane American would be happy if any senior Government official could pass the complete USA Naturalization Test (Civics & English)! At least then they would be forced to learn the US Constitution, know the function of the different branches of Government, know some Citizens rights and speak some English.
I know… It’s a lot to ask of a Politician! 😈
Hmmm. Come to think of it, All registered Republican voters should have to pass it also! And if they fail, send them to South Africa. They’d love it there! Of course, you’d have to pay SA a fortune to take them. Be cheap at half the price! LMAO
There were once laws requiring literacy tests for voters to keep minorities and poor people from voting, and they are specifically prohibited now. The problem with requiring politicians to take tests is that they would have to pass the laws and that “ain’t going to happen…”