Not me. My skin ain’t thick enough to handle the campaigning and the hordes of protestors.
I’d prefer to be a Cabinet secretary of a major department. Or, possibly, VP – all the perks and none of the policy!
Nope. Not President. God-Emperor, perhaps…but not President. Only if I can rule with dictatorial immunity would the hassle be worth it.
I think it’d be fun to be a 2nd term pesident and pull a “Bulworth”. No reelection to worry about, your post-presidential career as a speaker is pretty much assured, so just say what you really think. It’d be a blast to watch the nightly news go apeshit after your latest speech. Now I’m not saying I’d do anything reckless or dangerous, but it would be great to hear someone speak their mind without fear of political fallout.
Of course, to be a 2nd term president, you’d have to be a 1st termer and before that a nominee and all that associated garbage. I don’t know how people put up with it.
No law says you have to have two terms. And it would be interesting to see how the electorate responded to an honest presidency. The problem would be, though, that they wouldn’t be responding to what you said; they’d be responding to the spin put on what you said by your opponents.
It would depend who the alternative president is. There are tons of people that could handle the job better than I could, but there are also plenty of people who I would be morally obligated to take the job from rather than let them have it.
ISTR a constitutional amendment does have that two-term limit.
The rest of your post is dead on target. The sheer honesty and the spin doctoring will have some sort of political fallout. That, I might pay money to see.
It’d be worth giving it a shot. And hey, if I didn’t like it, I’d just stop showing up for work and it’d take care of itself.
I wouldn’t mind giving it a shot, but I don’t think I would be very popular. I think I’d get some damn fine legislation established, however, that would be seen as “ahead of its time” by future generations.
Frank Burns: “I didn’t come here to be liked!”
Radar: “You certainly came to the right place, Sir.”
“But I’ll always regret that Rwandan thing.”-- Bill Clinton
President? Never. Abso;ute Master Master of All I Survey (except, apparently, a keyboard with accuracy), ooooh yeah! I can see it now: Geezer the Great, solving all he nation’s problems with a wave of my hand. My First Lady could be Martha Stewart, not for sex, mind you (choke! shudder!), but she’d set a really impressive table. For sex there would be a stable of interns, all dressed like French maids. My Vice-Master of All I Survey would be. . .who am I kidding, Master is Master. I could take care of the Vice all by myself.
POP! (my bubble bursting)
Yeah, yeah! I know! Time to wake up! Take the trash out! Yada-yada-yada!
Seriously, I know leadership is needed, but I’m wary of anyone who actually wants that kind of power. Wary, but glad that someone is willing to take on that kind of responsibility.
Eve, you should pick up the new Vanity Fair (with Jackie O on the cover). From the article, it seems that the Kennedys did have parties like the one at the end of La Dolce Vita (did you see that on TCM the other night? Anita Ekberg…grrrrrwwwlllll), only these were held upstairs in the private quarters after official state dinners. One story relates how Lyndon Johnson had too many martinis, fell over Brook Astor and “lay on the floor like a lox.” Sophisticated entertainment, first rate food, liquor flowing like Prohibition was going to be reinstated tomorrow, and all that glamour. Count me in (I’m a sucker for Secret Service Agents and interns in little black dresses - or Interns and Secret Service Agents in little black dresses).
Looking at photos of the various Presidents at inauguration and then at the end of their terms, the job looks like it damn near killed some of them (Johnson, Nixon and Carter – none of who even spent two full terms in office) while some, like Reagen and Clinton, looked like they thrived.
For me, I think the perks and the chance to do Good ThingsTM would make up for the stress, but the more important question is:
Would you rather be President or Cecil?
What, you don’t think the context of a job has any effect on whether or not you’d take it?
Context is fine and well. You didn’t need to spoon-feed us, though, and tell us who screwed up the economy in your opinion. Saying that you would like to take over a good economy for whatever reasons would have been good enough, rather than putting a political spin on the premise as well. Interestingly enough I initially worded my own post a bit biased, as I added an adjective to the patriot act. I removed that though, as my view of the patriot act isn’t really relevant to the conversation. As usual, that’s imho and ymmv.
I’d love to be President. Even if I got sick of it, I could resign whenever I wanted to and collect a pension for the rest of my life.
If I had the job, most of the voters would probably end up hating me.
I’d withdrawl most of our troops abroad. I’d cut our military budget in half and redirect those funds towards a national healthcare plan.
Contraception and Abortion will be federally funded and free to all.
My administration will recognize gay marriages or civil unions.
I’d push to have “In God We Trust” removed from our currency.
I’d push to have marijuana legalized, and if Congress refuses to do so I will smoke marijuana on national television as a form of Civil Disobedience.
I’ll give up all the double talk, all the meaningless platitudes, and be direct about what I think. I’ll let the public be well aware of what I am doing and exactly why I am doing it. If I happen to make a mistake, I’ll admit to it. I’d rather tell the truth than hold on to a lie just to win votes.
I’d go on the TV show “Crossfire” on a regular basis.
I’d write my own speeches, every single word.
I’ll make it a point to publicly respond to at least three letters that I get per week, either in a nationally syndicated column or on the White House website.
Don’t be silly. Anybody can grow up to be President. There is only one Cecil.
How’s that for sucking up. Think I might get my five bucks refunded? 
I’d do it. I would lie like a rug and promise anything until I was sworn in and then my slacker side would come on strong-----delegate, delegate, and delegate some more. Three day work weeks; two weeks off every six weeks; four hour work days; lots of golf; public expense fishing trips; real babes as body guards; a Presidential yacht; good pay and a life long pension afterwards----and if I didn’t do anything at all, they couldn’t impeach me, could they? I would drop the embargo against Cuba, though. And the idiotic war on drugs would have to stop.
Maybe I would declare all lobyists to be terrorists and imprison all of them for life. Maybe I would make lobbying a capital offense, punishable by summary execution. I would impose a salary cap on doctors, lawyers and CEOs of public corporations. I think $100K per year is enough for anyone, don’t you? No stock options, either. Prescription drugs would be prescribed in three month supply quantities, and would never cost more than $20 per prescription. Porn would be legal, as would prostitution but only between consenting adults. No child porn though, and all child abusers would be summarily executed the moment guilt was proven beyond the shadow of a doubt. Gay marriage would be okay and maybe there would be a national holiday whereon every citizen would be required to engage in gay sex, but I haven’t really thought that one through, yet. But I couldn’t mention any of this stuff during the campaign, could I? One more thing and then I’ll stop: Any loud mouthed, pushy, holier-than-though religious jerk would get one chance at making a mountain move through faith alone. If they can’t do it, then they don’t have faith and had best shut the hell up before they really piss me off. I would really appreciate your vote.
I think kunilou has a point. Look at Bill Clinton in '92 and then 2000. His hair was all white by the end of his term. GW Bush is a lot grayer too these days.
You BET!
My objectives:
Term limits. Work on serving the people, not building a dynasty.
End foreign aid. When we show up, you bitch. When we aren’t there, you bitch. Get along on your own for a while, alright bitch?
To hell with fixing problems or attempting to on the other side of the globe. US troops earn spit and the folks they’re trying to help rarely respect them. When all domestic wounds are healed we can study the clarity of other ponds.
Seal the borders. Soldiers not deployed to West Butthole can assist INS.
Legalize prostitution, tax it and afford regular health inspections, not unlike USDA.
Legalize drugs. Tax them, and equate distribution restrictions to that of alcohol. Amish farmers can grow weed instead of tobacco.
Mandatory service of 4 years in the armed forces upon graduation from High School. No cheese provided, so don’t whine.
Those in prison are serving a debt to society. Road gangs, and any other useful service which can be derived will be expected.
Nationalize petroleum refiners. For years, telephone, electric and other ‘Public Utility’ rates have been regulated. How is petroleum any less a public utility than telco or electric? Seven figure salaries for the CEOs of Exxon/Mobil, et al? Buh-bye. Farmer Brown is limited by the dairy board for the offerings of Bessie, so you can play the same game.
This should be sufficient to piss off most everybody.
Somehow, I suspect if I had written, “I wouldn’t want to be President if that means inheriting a record-breaking deficit, a pointless war in the Middle East, and an international reputation that’s been dragged through the mud” would have mollified a lot of folks.
It’s always about the context.
You’ve got my vote!