A Pleasant Man Who Wanted to Be President

I am always leery of those who seek power. Reluctant leaders are the most trustworthy in my experience. The ones who would rather be home with their families attending Little League games and barbecuing in the back yard. But the guy who is more comfortable wearing a suit on the weekends, attending a Rotary meeting or a City Council meeting, that guy scares me.

When I was a kid, I wanted to be a movie star. Who didn't? I wanted to be famous, I wanted to inspire, I wanted to make people laugh. Long before reality TV shows made any schmo a star I watched Maureen O'Hara stand toe to toe with John Wayne in The Quiet Man, take a swing at him and finally melt in his arms. I wanted to be her. I watched Lucille Ball convince Vivian Vance to go along with another of her harebrained schemes and I laughed and thought it would be great fun to be a comedienne, like Lucy. Problem was, I wasn't a good actress like Maureen O'Hara and I wasn't funny like Lucille Ball. I wasn't qualified. No Hollywood producer would hire me simply because I wanted to be a star.

So can someone explain to me why we vote for people simply because they want to be our president or congressperson? Why don't we delve into their backgrounds, check their qualifications? Why don't we subject them to the kind of scrutiny, at least, as a contestant on American Idol?

Our president has claimed to be many things. He has said he was a college professor but now we learn he was a lecturer; big difference. We were told he is the smartest president ever to sit in the Oval Office, but for some reason his academic records are sealed, off limits to the public. Populism goes only so far these days. He promised his policies ($787 billion in stimulus courtesy of the taxpayers to begin with) would create jobs but unemployment seemed to accelerate almost as soon as those policies were put in place. We were offered Hope and Change by this president but the only thing that has Changed is that we no longer seem to have any Hope.

He is a pleasant man we are told. He is trim and athletic. And he really really likes being President. He has given more speeches, made more appearances and commanded more of the airwaves than any president in my lifetime. He has opinions on anything and everything and is not one bit shy about sharing them. Or twisting arms to turn them into law.

He reminds me of FDR. The four term president. The one whose policies extended the Great Depression and launched the Big Government thinking so popular today. Read what Walter Lippman wrote of FDR: "a pleasant man who, without any important qualifications for the office, would very much like to be president."

There are many parallels between Obama and Roosevelt and between the economic climate then and now. That is not meant to be a compliment. Rather it is a warning. A warning that it is time for each of us to wake up, to join forces for Liberty and economic freedom and take our country back. It is not too late, there is still time.

And one of the first places we can start is by supporting citizen candidates who simply want to fix this mess and then return home to their families and businesses. Who are reluctant leaders and wary of power. Who respect the hard work of their fellow citizens. And feel a responsibility to future generations not to spend their legacy recklessly and irresponsibly.

Pleasant men and women who simply want to do the right thing.