“We the people of the United States” have the power under our Constitution to elect our presidents. With the next presidential election coming in 2012, serious political campaigns surely will begin very soon.
Who will be our 2012 presidential candidates?
Barring some unforeseeable event, incumbent President Barack Obama surely will be the nominee of the Democrats for election to a second term.
But for Republicans, it would be very hard today to guess who their nominee will be. Many of the familiar “names” have faded. No one is really a “front-runner” yet. Who will “emerge”? He or she had better “show up” soon!
We all want to elect an excellent president in 2012, don’t we? But frankly, we don’t always have a very good record of making excellent choices.
Consider the list of our presidents:
George Washington
John Adams
Thomas Jefferson
James Madison
James Monroe
John Quincy Adams
Andrew Jackson
Martin Van Buren
William Henry Harrison
John Tyler
James K. Polk
Zachary Taylor
Millard Fillmore
Franklin Pierce
James Buchanan
Abraham Lincoln
Andrew Johnson
Ulysses S. Grant
Rutherford B. Hayes
James A. Garfield
Chester A. Arthur
Grover Cleveland
Benjamin Harrison
Grover Cleveland (again)
William McKinley
Theodore Roosevelt
William Howard Taft
Woodrow Wilson
Warren G. Harding
Calvin Coolidge
Herbert C. Hoover
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Harry S (he didn’t use a period) Truman
Dwight D. Eisenhower
John F. Kennedy
Lyndon B. Johnson
Richard M. Nixon
Gerald R. Ford
Jimmy Carter
Ronald Reagan
George H.W. Bush
Bill Clinton
George W. Bush
Barack Obama
Of course, you will recall presidents such as George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and a few others as having been really “great” presidents. Will we elect one of that stature in 2012?
Just consider how few of our presidents’ names, much less their accomplishments, we remember with great admiration.
We don’t like to consider it, but we really don’t have a very good record electing superior presidents. Is that “their” fault, or “ours”? Will we do better in 2012?
A few presidents have proved to be really “great.” Some have been “good.” But consider how many of our presidents have been just “mediocre” — or even “inadequate”!
Anyone may run for president. But we may choose. Millions of dollars will be spent to elect a president in 2012. Prodigious efforts will be made in their campaigns. Will there be at least one really capable, principled, wise and outstanding candidate?
Being president is not an “easy” job. Even the “best” presidents have had serious challenges, and critics. So it will be for our next president!
Will we elect a really outstanding president in 2012 to lead us in our domestic and international challenges? Or will our 2012 presidential choice be more like some of those we barely remember — or worse, remember negatively?