Perspectives On The US Presidency

Sometimes I wonder how so many Americans can take leave of their senses, forget their civics lessons, and come to believe in the omnipotence and omniscient genius of the man- or woman- they are electing or have elected as President.

Does anyone remember those two thorns in the Presidential side, the House of Representatives, and the Senate?

As a recent Wall Street Journal editorialist, whose name escapes me now, from the Cato Institute noted, a person who is simply one citizen among many becomes, when elected President, seemingly elevated to some higher level of knowledge and wisdom.

Let's face it, it isn't so.

John McCain is a guy of average intellect. Many of his legislative initiatives, especially his McCain-Feingold bill, are terrible laws that have made bad situations worse.

His opponent, the rookie Senator from Illinois, has zero meaningful accomplishments to his name, other than graduating from an Ivy League institution. I've done that. So have tens of thousands of other Americans.

In fact, of the two, the Illinois first-termer is by far the emptier suit. You, I, or anyone could theoretically recruit staffers and 'idea men,' dream up a program or plan for every imaginable ill the country might, or allegedly does, face, and then sell the beejezuz out of it.

But, having no actual accomplishments to his credit- successfully running a company, creating meaningful, effective and positively-life-changing legislation, doing successful trial work as an attorney, or breaking new legal ground as a professor- I'd think the Democratic candidate has less to recommend himself.

Because, in the end, so much of what a President can do comes down to character and decisiveness.

Our current President came into office in 2000 on voter preference for his view of domestic policy. Yet his two terms have largely dealt with successfully conducting a war against global terrorism. His decisiveness and determination have earned him enmity on the left, but kept us safe.

There's absolutely no question his opponents- Gore and Kerry- had little to recommend them in the way of character or determination to pursue a tough goal and achieve it.

On domestic policy, Bush has actually accomplished less than he planned, or hoped, due to a cowardly Republican Congress. A group which, for their lack of conviction and loss of moral compass, lost their majorities in both houses two years ago.

In our current election, let's not lose sight of the fact that whichever candidate wins, the best he can do is thwart Congress' worst ideas, plead for his own good ones, and hope to position America globally to not become less powerful or influential.

Reaching back to Eisenhower, remarkably few Presidents really left their unique mark, for good, on America.

Ike built the Interstate highway system and started the space program. Kennedy, aside from the moonshot and a brief tax cut, accomplished very little. Johnson did a lot, but, fortunately, we've managed to reverse much of the damage. Especially in the economic sector.

Nixon's accomplishments were in foreign policy, where he was relatively unfettered by Congress.

Reagan followed Carter's disastrous term with real, productive, lasting change that spurred nearly a quarter century of economic prosperity and growth in political power, in part by pushing the USSR into dissolution.

That's about it.

Kennedy, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Clinton, Bush41 and Bush 43 haven't really left significant imprints on the Republic which are likely to last beyond them by a very long time.

That's not to say Bush43 hasn't accomplished a great deal in terms of fighting global terrorism. But that's not a lasting effect, so much as a good job during his term.

It's probably not far wrong to predict that, whichever candidate wins the Oval Office next month, he'll be neutered within 24 months by a Democratic Congress, should that party retain and add to its majorities.

So much for either candidate's thick spiral notebooks of programs, policy initiatives and bright ideas across a wide spectrum of American life.

Truth is, President's rarely have anything near the affect they hope on the nation over which they were elected to preside for such a brief time. For those of us who prefer McCain, that's probably not so bad. Especially if he loses.