By Ray “Jerry” Friant
Here is something frightening but true. In the New Hampshire primary a large percentage of people didn’t make up their minds until they were in the voting booth. Those voters didn’t have a mature game plan for themselves in the selection process.
I’ve watched every president since Franklin Roosevelt — and the universal truism is that every president from Truman to Obama were “learners” in the White House job. It took each one several years to become effective — and some never did! So We-the-People must use our best judgment to select a person who can quickly mature into the presidency.
Ever hear a political debate — and listen to pundits’ commentary immediately after? How often do they opine something different from what you heard? And how often do the next-day headlines differ from what you heard? I believe often…and if you also believe often, then this blog may interest you. It organizes Common Sense.
If you are one of the uneducated, uninformed, already-made-up-your-mind, self-satisfied party loyalists who blindly vote party line…please don’t read this blog.
You won’t understand it. You won’t consider changing your opinion. And you certainly don’t recognize that wise citizens are Americans first, and never totally loyal to party leaders.
Wise citizens understand that occasionally the opposite party has a better idea and that working together is the success paradigm for managing our nation. (Please note that this blog is genderless re: party affiliation. Democrats, Republicans, and Independents all have similar loyalties, hence problems!)
So why don’t you develop for yourself a scorecard that will both force you to gather appropriate information, and then array it to give meaning?
To me, each of us must grade every candidate from both parties, and update our report cards as information is gathered. And that report card should lead each of us to vote for the candidate who we believe both will learn the job rapidly and also focus on a smart direction for America.
The scorecard that I use has the following elements:
Personality. True leaders always seem to have a magnetic personality. While some are bombastic and some reserved, most are warm in the flesh, even when they are on opposite sides of the table.
Maturity. This doesn’t mean age! Rather it means the wealth of experience that allows a person to quickly adjust to a new circumstance with a wise stance. For what it is worth, all great leaders change their minds when new information is available, which leads to a disgusting reality in the current campaign. A number of candidates say in their attacks on fellow candidates, “Why have you changed your stance from 20 years ago???” As though somehow they have sinned!
Vision. Presidential candidates must clearly spell out a forward set of objectives, including time-line milestones that they will push Congress to attain. This means clearly spelling out a program for balancing the budget and the free enterprise model to achieve Social Security solvency, infrastructure rebuild, illegal alien status, military strength, pollution control, natural resource usage and fair taxation. The strident “on day one, I’ll yak, yak…” doesn’t recognize that turning the ship of state is more like turning a giant ocean liner than turning a canoe.
Statesmanship. Our president must have such a commanding presence that his/her ideas are considered worthy just because of respect. This allows the president to be above the fray and thereby achieve actions with apparent ease.
World Knowledge. While the president is surrounded with legions of minions to give on-call briefings on every region, the president must come to the job with some actual hands-on knowledge. How much?? The more the better!
Business Knowledge. When I was a young man I stupidly thought that I knew a lot about business. I didn’t. Most people don’t. Listening to this year’s crop of contenders makes me very aware that only a few understand how our government and free enterprise system interact in their mutually dependent spheres. And that is mostly because the candidates do not understand the ins and outs of business.
Managerial Skill. Directing the efforts of a few clerical personnel doesn’t qualify. Being a governor does, being CEO of a large business does, and running a large federal branch does. What many people miss is the fact that the president is CEO of a behemoth with hundreds of departments, and that aspect of the presidency requires exceptional management skills and experience.
Legislative Experience/Success. This is a problem for private sector candidates who have never run the gauntlet from drafting to gaining support, to building consensus, to bill passage, and finally implementation. Sounds simple to those who have not done it — just as managing sounds simple to those who have never managed a gigantic, complex organization.
Ability to prioritize, focus on, and fix top problems. This skill is what we are longing for in any new president. All Americans deserve a leader who can clearly, succinctly focus the country on solving the major problems of today. Note that intransigently taking a hard position on relatively minor issues is not to be admired.
Not beholden to a sub-element like a party, or a contributor. Wealthy individuals contribute to every party. Why? Because they are buying influence. Candidates can say that they are not influenced by big contributors, which is a lot of hooey! When big contributors call to have an audience, they are seen. When average citizens call, they are told how busy the official is.
A couple of examples may clarify how I use the above described scorecard:
1) Donald Trump re-focused the public’s attention on the urgency of securing borders, bringing jobs back to America, and campaign finance reform. Accordingly, he gets high marks in the Vision category. However, his intransigent support for his “one simplistic solution to complex problems” is dumb. Ergo, he gets low marks on Maturity and Statesmanship.
2) Hillary Clinton gets high marks on World Knowledge because of her tenure as Secretary of State. However, she gets low marks on “Not Beholden to a Major Contributor.” And her unbelievable rhetoric doesn’t help her case.
3) Bernie Sanders gets high marks on Vision and Problem-Solving for his work engaging the private sector to vitalize Burlington’s waterfront, which is now a highly successful economic area. At the same time, he gets low marks from me for his socialistic “the top one percent should pay their fair share” stance, which besmirches a whole class of citizens, many of whom make the country run. And he besmirches them with innuendo to inflame the country’s have-nots.
Ray (Jerry) Friant lives in Morris Township, belongs to the Morristown United Methodist Church and is active with Morris Habitat for Humanity. The retired corporate turnaround executive is the author of Beyond Buzzwords.
