© 2008 Michael Swickard, Ph.D.
I got this question from a reader: “About two months ago I received an e-mail picture showing Obama not singing or holding his hand over his heart while they were playing the national anthem. Clinton and Edwards were. A footnote also said Obama would not salute the flag or say the Pledge of Allegiance. Is that true?”
I do not know if it is true, nor do I care if people act patriotic. Rather, I care about whether they are patriotic. One thing positive about Obama is that he took a principled stance about the flag. Not that I agree with him, but it is refreshing to have someone do what he does knowing that the media will show him not acting patriotic.
But I have another take on Barack. People say the issue with his minister is important since once a week he sat in the congregation and appeared to listen. Consider that every night he put his head on the pillow next to his wife Michelle. I suspect he has listened to her far more than the minister. If you want to know Barack, forget the minister. Look at his soul mate.
The only reason this story about the minister has any legs at all is that the press is bored beyond belief, since there are only so many stories you can write about a candidate and his dog, Waggles. Every day the press runs ink on paper and between all of those ads something has to be written. There are only so many late-breaking news items, “It appears he prefers hot dogs to hamburgers.”
It is serious that his minister perhaps does not like me sight unseen because of my race. How sad. But Obama has never come across as embracing that line of thought. Rather, he has come across, as the rocketry saying goes, all thrust, no payload. In fact, with all three candidates we have no real idea what they will do next year if elected, least of all Obama.
Bringing Obama’s wife into the fray will only last for a couple of news cycles. The spouse is important since the presidency is best conceived as a two-person job. One of the shining moments of World War II was when Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of then President Franklin Roosevelt, convinced him that black pilots would be appropriate in the military. This led to the formation of the Tuskegee Airmen.
It is appropriate to think of the possible good and bad that can be done by spouses. But it is way down on my list. My first item is that I want to like the president. I voted for Jimmy Carter the first time because I liked him better than Ford. I did not know what his idea of government was because he ran on platitudes, not unlike Obama who is long on words like hope and change and short on how he will stop our slide toward the economic latrine.
Carter was not a mainstream politician from
Carter did not really have a clue about the presidency. He was a well-meaning man, a man without scandal, but here is the core issue: Carter was a man who left the nation worse off than when he came in.
Not making the nation worse
That may be my first criteria. If the person elected president does not improve our country, could we at least have someone who does not make it worse? All the things that the last three standing presidential candidates talk about make me nervous. I wonder if we will look back at 2008 as the last good year.
There are four major areas the next president must not make worse. It is very unlikely the next president will fix any of these, since that would take guts, but, at the least, do not make things much worse. The first area: The next president cannot be all things to all people at all times and in all ways. The presidency is not located at the North Pole and it is not the president’s job to throw swag at every potential voter, though that is what each president does.
The president must deal with our security, then with our finances, then with the question of borders and immigration. Then with nothing else to do, the president needs to lead us to a worthy goal for this next century. Take us to Mars or lead us to some other worthy challenge. Could we be excited to go back to the moon? Perhaps.
A new president will in all likelihood not make things better. I look at the three candidates and find that I feel like voting for the most likable one of the three, but I know I will hate myself for four years if that candidate governs like Carter.
Swickard is a weekly columnist for this site. You can reach him at michael@swickard.com.