# Would you want to be President of the US? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 26, 2004, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-want-to-be-president-of-the-us/242157 "2004-04-26T22:10:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2004, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-want-to-be-president-of-the-us/242157/1 "2004-04-26T22:10:05Z")
I can’t imagine wanting this job. Long hours, high stress and the pay is not that great. Would you want it? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2004, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-want-to-be-president-of-the-us/242157/2 "2004-04-26T22:16:56Z")
[Professor Farnsworth] Oh my, no![/PF] Couldn’t pay me enough. ---
**Author:** ![Ross](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e274bd/32.png) [@Ross](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ross)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2004, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-want-to-be-president-of-the-us/242157/3 "2004-04-26T22:25:46Z")
Does the President get cable? And would I have a small but loyal band of insane supporters, maybe 1000, who’d still think I was great even after I bombed LA because I got confused? Yeah, I’ll give it a go. When do I get to vomit on a foreign dignitary? ---
**Author:** ![ParentalAdvisory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/53a042/32.png) [@ParentalAdvisory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParentalAdvisory)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2004, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-want-to-be-president-of-the-us/242157/4 "2004-04-26T22:31:29Z")
Influence on legislation, fancy cars, nice house, …and lets not forget interns! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2004, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-want-to-be-president-of-the-us/242157/5 "2004-04-26T22:33:48Z")
President? No thanks. But if there is an opening for invisible puppet master behind the scenes who really controls everything, I am so there. ---
**Author:** ![RainGrowsBrite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed655f/32.png) [@RainGrowsBrite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RainGrowsBrite)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2004, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-want-to-be-president-of-the-us/242157/6 "2004-04-26T22:36:19Z")
To be considered the most powerful person on the planet… Um, yes, I think I would give it a shot! The list of things that I would do if I was the leader of the free world couldnt be any longer. To be able to have that large of an influence over the planet would be worth the long hours and stress. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2004, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-want-to-be-president-of-the-us/242157/7 "2004-04-26T22:38:46Z")
No. I do not wish to rule over others, as all governments depend on the use of lethal force to survive. ---
**Author:** ![kelly5078](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/6f9a4e/32.png) [@kelly5078](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kelly5078)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2004, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-want-to-be-president-of-the-us/242157/8 "2004-04-26T22:49:17Z")
NO! And neither would anyone else who doesn’t want to obtain and hold on to enormous power, at almost any cost. Which explains a lot. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2004, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-want-to-be-president-of-the-us/242157/9 "2004-04-26T23:09:51Z")
Hell no. $250,000 a year for that job? Are you crazy? ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2004, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-want-to-be-president-of-the-us/242157/10 "2004-04-27T00:03:13Z")
Depends. After Clinton’s Presidency? Sure! Anyone with a halfway intelligent sense of thinking can stay the course and keep the well-oiled national machinery humming. After George W. Bush’s Presidency? Hell no; you need a miracle worker to clean up the mess we’ve got here, and I don’t do miracles. ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2004, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-want-to-be-president-of-the-us/242157/11 "2004-04-27T00:53:12Z")
> [@](#): > > After Clinton’s Presidency? Sure! Anyone with a halfway intelligent sense of thinking can stay the course and keep the well-oiled national machinery humming. > > After George W. Bush’s Presidency? Hell no; you need a miracle worker to clean up the mess we’ve got here, and I don’t do miracles. Oh yeah dealing with the cleanup of the collapsed dot com economy and 9/11 would just be a walk in the park. What is the purpose of shitting personal politics in a thread that has nothing to do with it? It’s already 50 percent of this board, is it that hard to find a thread about Bush to post in that you half to shoehorn it everywhere else? ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2004, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-want-to-be-president-of-the-us/242157/12 "2004-04-27T00:59:16Z")
I’d _love_ to be First Lady . . . I don’t think any of them–the recent ones, anyway–really had _fun_ with it. I’d be like a demented combination of Jackie Kennedy, Divine, and Patsy Stone. I’d throw the _best_ White House bashes _ever_ . . . You know that party at the end of _La Dolce Vita_? Picture that with a combination of world leaders, movie stars, and hot Secret Service agents and interns . . . ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2004, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-want-to-be-president-of-the-us/242157/13 "2004-04-27T01:01:09Z")
Well shit, I really shouldn’t have posted that, I reacted hot-headedly and took the bait. Doing exactly what I was complaining about. Apologies to the OP and the mods for putting the match to the fuse, And I hope everybody else has better sence then I did refrain from hijacking the thread into that same overdone conversation. sorry Khadaji, I’ll shut up now. ---
**Author:** ![norinew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb9ed0/32.png) [@norinew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/norinew)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2004, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-want-to-be-president-of-the-us/242157/14 "2004-04-27T01:03:42Z")
No, no, no, _hell_ no! There are not invectives strong enough to convey my feelings about this. I mean, I got three kids (okay, two of them are teenagers, so that ups the stress levels a little), a great husband, a house to live in, etc. and _still_ about twice a month, I need a 5 mg. Valium to get to sleep. I can’t _imagine_ what I’d need if I were President. ---
**Author:** ![Optihut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/edb3f5/32.png) [@Optihut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Optihut)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2004, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-want-to-be-president-of-the-us/242157/15 "2004-04-27T02:52:04Z")
> [@Khadaji](#): > > I can’t imagine wanting this job. Long hours, high stress and the pay is not that great. Would you want it? I want it, I want it! Being the president of my own little island nation would be good enough already, but getting a chance to be the president of the USA? That would be quite an opportunity. And since I don’t have a problem with committing political suicide, I’d tighten gun control, revert the patriot act, make the recitation of the pledge of allegiance highly optional (read: Do it at home, if you feel that you must), either start pumping out the oil of Iraq already or repair the ties with the international community (doing something half-assed isn’t worth it. At this stage, I’d probably take the oil and call it quits), lower the drinking age to 18, put a stronger focus on history and science at schools and do probably a whole lot of other things people are going to lynch me for 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2004, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-want-to-be-president-of-the-us/242157/16 "2004-04-27T04:21:40Z")
> [@norinew](#): > > No, no, no, _hell_ no! There are not invectives strong enough to convey my feelings about this. I mean, I got three kids (okay, two of them are teenagers, so that ups the stress levels a little), a great husband, a house to live in, etc. and _still_ about twice a month, I need a 5 mg. Valium to get to sleep. I can’t _imagine_ what I’d need if I were President. Actually, I think my stress level would go down if I was President. To be specific, I wouldn’t always be burning with anger about how the President was handling the country. Because although I might not be perfect at the job, I could hardly do any worse than the last few fools we’ve had. I just wouldn’t start any wars, would order Congress to reduce the budget by a certain amount each year or else get a veto, and would put a total economic embargo on any country that supports terrorism. How hard can it be? ---
**Author:** ![iamme99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/57b2e6/32.png) [@iamme99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamme99)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2004, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-want-to-be-president-of-the-us/242157/17 "2004-04-27T06:40:25Z")
> [@Aesiron](#): > > Hell no. $250,000 a year for that job? Are you crazy? Actually, it’s been 400k since 2001. I’ll accept the opportunity, thank you very much. I’ll solve all the county’s worst problems and everyone will live happily ever after, the envy of the rest of the world (is this a generic enough platform? :D) ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2004, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-want-to-be-president-of-the-us/242157/18 "2004-04-27T11:47:20Z")
Yes. I would love to be the President of the United States. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2004, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-want-to-be-president-of-the-us/242157/19 "2004-04-27T12:03:55Z")
I wouldn’t want any job where my every move would be scrutinized on the nightly news. And I’m not talking about job-related issues - I mean personal matters (thinking of Reagan’s polyps here) :eek: How awful not to be able to have a crabby day or to say exactly what you were thinking. I can see me at a press conference after some reporter asked some inane question or phrased it so that there’s no good answer. First, I’d stare in disbelief, then have to say “What kind of idiot are you?” Yeah, that’d go over well… No thanks. I don’t want to be in such a fishbowl. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2004, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-want-to-be-president-of-the-us/242157/20 "2004-04-27T12:59:33Z")
> [@wolfman](#): > > Well shit, I really shouldn’t have posted that, I reacted hot-headedly and took the bait. Doing exactly what I was complaining about. > > Apologies to the OP and the mods for putting the match to the fuse, And I hope everybody else has better sence then I did refrain from hijacking the thread into that same overdone conversation. > > sorry Khadaji, I’ll shut up now. Lol, apology accepted but not needed. I too would prefer that the thread stick to the question and not have political commentary. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-want-to-be-president-of-the-us/242157.md?page=2)