Oprah Winfrey for president? That was the burning question in American politics on Monday after the entertainment celebrity and entrepreneur delivered a barnstorming speech that had many hailing her as the antidote to Donald Trump.OK, so unlike Trump, Winfrey isn't showing signs of dementia and she has no known ties to Russia, but still: This is a very bad idea.
Right now, the U.S. is in the midst of seeing what happens when Americans choose a president who has no experience in politics or government and it's fair to say that it's not going well at all. Even worse, both Trump and Winfrey have been running organizations where their word, indeed, their every whim, is law.
Even coming from the military can be a bit of a culture shock, as Truman warned about Eisenhower:
“He’ll sit here, and he’ll say, ‘Do this! Do that!’ And nothing will happen. Poor Ike—it won’t be a bit like the Army. He’ll find it very frustrating.”Eisenhower at least understood that the judiciary and the legislative branches were not his to command. Trump didn't seem to understand that, at least at first, and I'm not so sure that he does.
Unlike Trump, Winfrey is likely smart enough to know what she doesn't know and hire good advisers. But it's still a bad idea.
13 comments:
" seeing what happens when Americans choose a president who has no experience in politics or government".
Odd, when it was pointed out that Barry had none, it was a great idea. wasn't it? Can you remember that far back?
Odd how *now* that is put forth by those who simply cannot be rational about The Donald.
(and no, I don't want to see Oprah run, either)
I fail to see how folks who aren't beholden to, guided by, or a part of the "government" we have are a detriment. If they ARE any of the above, then they are simply puppets of the Mandarins....and that is how you get folks like Trump every generation.
Except "Barry" as you out it was both a state and US Senator so I hardly think that qualifies as no experience.
This really gets into what we have evolved our presidential system into. The president we want is such a mix of so many different things to so many different people and then must be willing and able to jump through the hoops needed to be elected. No wonder we get what we get.
What it takes to win is a public personality/performer that can communicate a variety of things as and when needed to the diverse American citizenry. In addition to a performer/personality we want someone smart, familiar with government (but not too familiar, as in part of the swamp), familiar with business, economics, all the countries (190+ of them) cultures and relationships of the world, a father/mother figure to some extent, compassionate but not a patsy, strong but not a jerk about it. And then this paragon must spend the time and mortification of mind and flesh to run for years it seems and raise the money and organize the campaign to win the election.
I just about automatically suspect the sanity of anyone who would put themselves through the election process, which really doesn't match the qualities needed for the job very well. Which is why we get what we get to pick from.
As has already been pointed out, B, your opening premise was fallacious.
Only in government do we pick people with no experience at it to run things. As far as I can see, it's not worked out terribly well. CEOs seem to think that they can issue orders and everyone will fall into line. Doesn't worth that way (looking at you, Bruce Rauner).
You and I disagree on Trump, who you loathe and who I think is doing OK.
But even liking Trump, I'm keeping an open mind about Oprah. She made an empire from nothing, and that shows that she can see things that other people don't. She thinks outside the box. As does Trump.
What this Republic needs to for the ruling class to be worked over (good and hard) by people who think out of the box. Trump is doing that; Oprah might. She looks (for now) like she could.
Like I said, I'm keeping an open mind. Right now for America, change is the uber metric.
P.S. No CEO that expects to stay CEO thinks he can just issue orders and have them carried out. What Trump seems to excel at is firing people who don't move the ball down the field the way he wants it to move. Ask Anthony Scaramucci, or Tom Price, or Steve Bannon. More firings, please.
Except my opening premise wasn't fallacious. Barry did nothing as a state senator, never accomplished anything. He was, for a short time, a US senator, where most of the time he didn't even attend.
He wasn't even a good "communinty organizer", really.
Trump has management experience, which Barry did not. Trump is a leader, Barry was a consensus seeker. Barry was led around, and wasn't a leader. If he weren't black, he wouldn't have even been considered to have been promoted as a presidential candidate.
As Borepatch says, Oprah might do well in the chief executive spot. She built and organization and was successful.
I'd consider her, if it came to that.
Oh dear B., let’s look at a few facts:
Over 8 years, Barack Obama voted approximately 4,000 times in the Illinois Senate, and of those, 129 were “Present”. Since Present voting is a common tactic in the Illinois Senate to show disapproval without voting no, this was a phone issue.
Over 4 years, Barack Obama sponsored 282 pieces of legislation in the U.S Senate and cosponsored 977. Of these, 31 Bills became law and 148 Amendments were accepted.
So, that’s “no experience in politics or government” eh? And that’s without the time spent organizing in Chicago. B., your ODS is flaring again, just wander over to the couch either reread Atlas Shrugged or play some Trump speeches and you’ll feel better. And no, your opening statement wasn’t just fallacious, it was slanderous.
Borepatch ,
What has he accomplished? Serious question .
The man has a tame House and Senate .
Ah yes, governor hedgefund. My Illinois friends tell me that he at least had the foresight to buy the state legislature outright. Still not going well for him.
President of the United States is a difficult job, like, say, surgeon. People live and die on the success or failure of their performance.
I don't know about you, but when I had surgery in 2015, I made sure my surgeon knew what the hell he was doing. (Thank you Dr. Huang, I can see again!)
Oprah doesn't seem as dangerous of a prospect as Fergus, if only for the fact that she seems to have a more or less normal amount of empathy and human decency, and might take it seriously enough to try to learn how to do it.
All of which are qualities I might want my surgeon to have also, but not in place of an ability to do the job without killing me.
The unmooring of competence from political candidates election prospects is incredibly damaging to this country and its prospects for continuing to exist as a non-dictatorship. Elect the celebrities and the chicken farmers won't be far behind:
"The main Islamist group in Algeria, the GIA, ended up being led by a Mr. Zouabri, a chicken farmer, who killed everyone who disagreed with him. He issued a final communiqué, declaring that the whole of Algerian society should be killed, with the exception of his tiny remaining band of Islamists. They were the only ones who understood the truth."
-Doug in Oakland
Glenn, posted at some length about this last week:
http://borepatch.blogspot.com/2018/01/why-donald-trump-will-transform-america.html
There's quite good reason to think that the economy is taking off like we haven't seen in decades, and Trump was the only one even thinking about how to do that. I expect that we'll have some pretty decent data points on this prediction in 6 months or so. I may be wrong on this, but I do show my work.
In 1988 Obama enrolled in Harvard Law School, where he was the first black president of the Harvard Law Review. After graduation, he became a civil rights attorney and professor, and taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004.
Barack Obama - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama
The orange clown has no clue what the Constitution or Law means.
Pragmatically (also politically incorrect to say), she would push too many buttons in the grumpy old white crowd, AKA Make America White Again (and male). Obama was bad enough to them (He's BLACK!) and smart (and alas, so professorial, definite downcheck: people do NOT like being talked down to).
But. Women is major public office is still something America has trouble digesting and accepting. So many things (and ugly ones too) that men do are accepted, but send people climbing the wall when women do them. And many that have the drive and ambition (also makes people edgy in women) don't know how to truly lead (maybe even most men don't either, but that doesn't matter, alas). Hillary sure didn't. An effective administrator, great Secretary of State, but all the charisma of last night's dishwater, no generation of everyone wanting to follow where she is leading.
She could probably do the job, certainly better that Il Dunce.
But what's needed is someone that can lead and inspire and get things done....and not upset and provoke the bigotry and narrow-mindedness of this country, not be a punching bag for its stupidity. Not right now. This country needs to heal, to find a new center....and the less buttons pressed, the more likely that is to happen.
Alas, we need a white male with a heartening manner and real charisma. We need to wait 2024/8 for a woman president.
The qualities needed in a president are first and foremost to be a leader and then to be competent and/or recognize it and gather it around him/her. Obama's big problem was that he never led. Great achiever, yes, but he didn't reach America's hardened hearts and tiny minds....and much of what he did is therefore melting like sandcastles at the tide line. Trump is an utter shithead, but he is a leader....of the worst kind....and worse than incompetent as well.
Meant:
She [Oprah] could probably do the job, certainly better that Il Dunce.
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