Why the hell would anyone want to run for President!!??!

you get to spend two years of your life under a microscope watched by people who have nothing better to do than overanalyze every move you make.

On top of that, you have to deal with people who will take anything (vote, aspect, or action) that could possibly, even in the strangest version of reality, be used against you, and use it against you (and very loudly).

And if that vote, aspect, or action falls outisde of that possibliity, it will be intentionally misconstrued into something that COULD be used against you.

People who endorse you go from respectable public servants to evil, selfish, party- (or country-) destroying bastards.

Anyone you have ever talked to or worked with, or been in the same room with, will have their faults attributed to you.

Surrogates go on live TV and attack you by being IRL concern trolls.

And if you try to defend yourself from unfair attacks, you are accused of being negative. If you're lucky, people just think you and the person doing this to you are both making a mockery of the democratic process. Then the guy who is NOT being attacked becuase he is neither the front runner nor a threat to the front runner gets to call himself the "adult".

You get called "substanceless" "unlikeable" "shrill" by people who feel no need to back their statements up with evidence.

You get accused of being racist, sexist, homophobic etc. etc.

You get accused of murdering people, being a lesbian, hating America, being a member of an unpopular religion(also selling out your fellow POWs while in Vietnam- that's a real attack from this campaign) by wackos who get more air time than they deserve.

I just don't get why anyone would do it... So frustrating.

Hooowaaaahhh!

every day for lunch. Yes, I've actually thought about this.

some people think they have a vision for their country and the world

.....lots of prestige?

(You thought I was going to say something else? Shame on you!)

:)

They will inherit an almost impossible mess to clean up, and their best efforts will be met with criticism by one group or another. Of course, the gop candidates won't care, because they'll continue to consolidate power in the Executive Branch and become dictators--then they can shut up any and all critics.

You can mispronounce the Spanish prime minister's name;
You can give the German chancellor a back rub;
You can look into the eyes and see the soul of the Russian president;
You can hold hands and play kissy-face with the Saudi king...

You can sit and do nothing when America is attacked and not be held accountable;
You can wage war based on lies and not be held accountable;
You can expose a convert American intelligence officer and not be held accountable;
You can sit and do nothing when violent storms wreck a classic American city and not be held accountable;
You can listen in on your fellow Americans without a warrant and not be held accountable;
You can torture your political enemies in secret prisons and not be held accountable...

You can preside over huge oil-price increases, and the US media look the other way;
You can preside over record home-foreclosures, and the US media look the other way;
You can preside over soaring health-care costs, and the US media look the other way;
You can preside over the biggest outsourcing of US jobs overseas, and the US media look the other way;
You can preside over the summit of peak oil, and the US media look the other way...

You can do all this and still be depicted in the US media as "charming," with a penchant for giving nicknames, and the one most Americans would rather have a beer with.

You can do all this and still be depicted in the US media as a president with a "vision" like Bush was this morning (after last evening's SOTU speech).

Why wouldn't you want all this?

That and the $10 million dollar book deal the day I leave office.

Has anyone in recent memory not turned a high political office into a financial boon? I know that many office seekers are wealthy in the first place, but those that aren't seem to amass fortunes when they leave.

Left office deep in debt and had to write books to pay off his creditors.

He jokes he'd love to get one of those multi-million dollar speaking gigs like Clinton got when he left office, but "no one offered me those".

Last and maybe only truly honest man to hold the presidency.

Had he not been an ex-president? Carter has said that he was 1 million dollars in debt when he left office due to mismanagement by the trustees of his blind trust. He paid his debts by writing books, but how much could he have made if he was just a peanut farmer. I have read that he is in pretty good shape financially today.

This is not meant to be a slam at Carter, it just re-enforces my original thought.

Even though 30 years later he is doing okay, I wouldn't say he really cashed in.

from doing so.

To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who most want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it.
To summarize the summary: anyone capable of getting themselves made President should by no means be allowed to do the job.
To summarize the summary of the summary: people are a problem.

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Any American who is prepared to run for president should automatically, by definition, be disqualified from ever doing so. -- Gore Vidal
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sixth one down at
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/g/gore_vidal.html

Came to appreciate Adams only recently, listened to "Salmon of Doubt" all the way through twice last fall. Amazing mind.

you have to raise disgusting amounts of money that should be spent doing good in the world. Most candidates seem to sell a bit of their political soul to get the money.

I've given up caring about this campaign. I care about election and campaign finance reform for the future.

You can't get more exciting than that.

"History has tried to teach us that we can't have good government under politicians. Now, to go and stick one at the very head of government couldn’t be wise." Mark Twain