What can we do?

Editorial

We have been hearing and will continue hearing about this one. Just what is it that "qualifies" a president? Millions of words have been written with no clear and concise agreement. American presidential histories have been so varied one can make almost any case for any set of desirable set of traits. Bias is built in from the commentator's own set of traits. <

Each of us is born with three basic sets of traits that define our basic personhood:

• Our skill sets both enable and limit what we can do. These come from the sum total of our experience since we became self-aware as individuals. Among the more important sources are our parents, our school, and personal and career related experiences with society.
• Our personalities. These comprise the temperaments we are born with as these were modified by the environments we grew up in. Parents and family are paramount here, but friends and society play roles too.
• Our characters. Here, the issue is to what degree we have separated our behavior from our instinctual or animalistic instincts.

There is little doubt that our founding fathers, Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and Madison were effective presidents. Each made mistakes; each learned from them--an affect of their particular personalities. Each did great and not so great things. After that, Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, and John Kennedy all served notably.

• Skill Sets
  • Understand and able to employ lessons of history
  • Understand elements beneath Modernization
  • Understand government administration
    • Able to engage in partisan politics if/as necessary
    • Political Acumen that achieves results
    • Statesmanship with a long view of America's place in the world
  • Deep knowledge of Constitutional Law
  • Working knowledge of Central Bank system
  • Working knowledge of free-enterprise system
• Personality features
  • Leadership
    • Charisma
    • Flexibility - no plan survives its encounter with reality
    • Historical perspectives
    • Integrity in office
    • Initiative
    • Political Acumen
    • Statesmanship
    • Team play
  • Able to identify effective staff members
  • Have balanced internal/external loci of control
  • Creativity
  • Dialogic style
  • Resourcefulness in problem solving
  • Sociability - Open style
• Character features
  • Accepting others with personal regard.
  • Personal honesty

We do not mention any specific problems, and there are many to be dealt with.

Bias in articles such as this may be inevitable, except perhaps in disciplines such a mathematics. But it can be minimized if the writer recognizes not only what his/her biases are, but where they came from and how they tilt or taint their owner's world-view. We posted this page with this in mind. Our biases appear in the above. Most of them came from our unique backgrounds and/or perspectives. It is up to you to decide where truth lies.