What does it take to be an effective president

[Pete F.]

An interesting excerpt from a book written 15 years ago.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/front...reenstein.html

[spence]

I think the lack of interest in this post speaks volumes.

[wdmso]

it was written by an elitist AKA smart person ... so it has to be a lie or written to discredit Trump

[JohnR]

Trump is not a great Pres, Obama was not a great Pres. In both we got what we deserved.

Hillary and Sanders would have been terrible. Would Mitt have been good? Dunno. But I think he would have been better than T or O.

When was the last good one? George Sr? Ronnie?

Carter sucked. Don't know enough about Ford. Nixon is Nixon. Johnson was terrible.

But Abraham Lincoln is not walking through that door.

[zimmy]

Last good one was Obama. I actually think it is too bad you don't see it.Hillary would have been fine, but people like to hate her. She is annoying but her policies would have been dramatically better than Donny numb nuts or w.
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[The Dad Fisherman]

Hillary was #^&#^&#^&#^&

Last good one was probably RR, senior wasn't bad, had a lot of chit dumped on his plate that the country wasn't ready to deal with yet.
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[Sea Dangles]

That is funny
Hahaha
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[Nebe]

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[JohnR]

Originally Posted by zimmy

Last good one was Obama. I actually think it is too bad you don't see it.Hillary would have been fine, but people like to hate her. She is annoying but her policies would have been dramatically better than Donny numb nuts or w.
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Sorry - he may have been the last decent man in office (Trump is not decent) but his policies were generally poor to horrible, FP was a disaster (not all his fault, some inherited)

[Pete F.]

The paper is not about policy, though I am sure the authors views may have colored it somewhat one way or another, but about what qualities make an effective president.
He lists 6 qualities that he considered.
It was written in the last Bush administration.
What do you think Obama and Trumps weaknesses and strengths are in these categories? Not looking at their Policies.
It's not a test and you don't have to answer, but it is an important thing to think about as a voter.
Effectiveness as a Public Communicator
Organizational Capacity
Political Skill
Vision
Cognitive Style
Emotional Intelligence

[Jim in CT]

Originally Posted by Pete F.

The paper is not about policy, though I am sure the authors views may have colored it somewhat one way or another, but about what qualities make an effective president.
He lists 6 qualities that he considered.
It was written in the last Bush administration.
What do you think Obama and Trumps weaknesses and strengths are in these categories? Not looking at their Policies.
It's not a test and you don't have to answer, but it is an important thing to think about as a voter.
Effectiveness as a Public Communicator
Organizational Capacity
Political Skill
Vision
Cognitive Style
Emotional Intelligence

Are any of these things anywhere near as important, as policy?

Trump's political skill is beyond measure, otherwise Hilary would be POTUS. The biggest jerk ever, beat (crushed) the most inevitable candidate ever.

Trump maybe has the lowest emotional intelligence (whatever that is) ever, but who cares. I mean he's embarrassing, but I'd rather have an effective jerk than a decent guy who is clueless.

[Jim in CT]

Originally Posted by JohnR

But Abraham Lincoln is not walking through that door.

Condaleeza Rice is at Stanford. We may have to pass a law ordering her to be POTUS under penalty of death. She's what the nation needs. Maybe Nikki Haley? That's a big maybe, but she'll probably be the next GOP nominee not named Donald Trump.

[Pete F.]

Originally Posted by Jim in CT

Are any of these things anywhere near as important, as policy?

Trump's political skill is beyond measure, otherwise Hilary would be POTUS. The biggest jerk ever, beat (crushed) the most inevitable candidate ever.

Trump maybe has the lowest emotional intelligence (whatever that is) ever, but who cares. I mean he's embarrassing, but I'd rather have an effective jerk than a decent guy who is clueless.

You could have the greatest policy in the world but history won't care if it only is in thought.
Political skill is more than getting elected.
You need to be able to get enough of a group to be able to enact thru legislation the things you want and not give up too much. If you don't get the legislation the next guy can wipe your work off the board. Look at the last president.
Here's a definition for you, success however is always subject to definition.
e·mo·tion·al in·tel·li·gence
noun
the capacity to be aware of, control, and express one's emotions, and to handle interpersonal relationships judiciously and empathetically.
"emotional intelligence is the key to both personal and professional success"

[Jim in CT]

Originally Posted by Pete F.

You could have the greatest policy in the world but history won't care if it only is in thought.
Political skill is more than getting elected.
You need to be able to get enough of a group to be able to enact thru legislation the things you want and not give up too much. If you don't get the legislation the next guy can wipe your work off the board. Look at the last president.
Here's a definition for you, success however is always subject to definition.
e·mo·tion·al in·tel·li·gence
noun
the capacity to be aware of, control, and express one's emotions, and to handle interpersonal relationships judiciously and empathetically.
"emotional intelligence is the key to both personal and professional success"

Ok for Gods sake, if something isn't implemented it's not policy, it's an idea. If it makes you feel better, I mean "implemented policy" is a million times more important than the soft skills you listed.

"Political skill is more than getting elected"

agreed. He also brought the NFL and ESPN to their knees, got Neil Gosrich confirmed, is helping the economy roll along, has terrorists on the run, got hos tax cuts passed.

"You need to be able to get enough of a group to be able to enact thru legislation the things you want "

That's obviously true, and it's equally obvious that he has that, it's not like everything he wants to do is getting blocked. He's doing a lot.

"emotional intelligence is the key to both personal and professional success"

well Trump is a billionaire, married to a hottie, who defied the odds and crushed the favorite candidate to get elected POTUS. So if emotional intelligence is "the" key to success, then he must have emotional intelligence coming out of his ears.

He's not a good guy, but he's a success by any definition.

In my opinion, "emotional intelligence" is the bullsh*t term-de-jour of human resources folks and motivational speakers who want to get paid to try to convince us that it's "the" key to success., and only they can help us harness the power of "the" key to success.

[unclebunker]

Damn. Clearly I've been working from the wrong list all these years.Would've thought "character" would make the top 6. Thank God there are guys like Fred Greenstein to make lists and opine, and other guys who attach weight to their drivel. Otherwise,the rest of us might think for ourselves.

[Pete F.]

Originally Posted by unclebunker

Damn. Clearly I've been working from the wrong list all these years.Would've thought "character" would make the top 6. Thank God there are guys like Fred Greenstein to make lists and opine, and other guys who attach weight to their drivel. Otherwise,the rest of us might think for ourselves.

Some might say that Character was assumed, but that does explain the last election.
Since Character was not on the list it was not accounted for, by either party.

[Slipknot]

and you can add in morality and integrity

[Jim in CT]

Originally Posted by Slipknot

and you can add in morality and integrity

Bill Clinton was a pretty good potus, and morality and decency had nothing to do with it. He was a scumbag, a complete and utter scumbag.
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[Nebe]

I didn’t read all ththe pst posts but what I think is needed to make a great president is to take the reigns and put aside EVERYTHING to do what is best for all people of this country and not pander to one party over another. It’s pretty obvious none of that is going on now
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[Sea Dangles]

Who was the last president who did not pander to his party Nebe?
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[detbuch]

Originally Posted by Nebe

I didn’t read all ththe pst posts but what I think is needed to make a great president is to take the reigns and put aside EVERYTHING to do what is best for all people of this country and not pander to one party over another. It’s pretty obvious none of that is going on now
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Trump thinks he is doing what is best for all the people. Obama thought he was doing that. The Bush's thought they were doing that. Carter thought he was doing that. Nixon, Kennedy, Eisenhower, etc., etc., thought they were doing that. I just can't get myself to admit that Clinton thought that.

[Got Stripers]

And yet he was only the second president to balance the budget
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[zimmy]

Originally Posted by Jim in CT

Trump's political skill is beyond measure, otherwise Hilary would be POTUS. The biggest jerk ever, beat (crushed) the most inevitable candidate ever.

He is good at inciting anger. He beat the most hated candidate ever. There are plenty of people here and all over america who would never vote for her no matter what. That is not political skill beyond measure. You are demonstrating your math skills again when you say he crushed her. 45 of 58 of presidential elections were won by larger margins in the electoral college (that is 77.6% were won by more; his victory is in the bottom 1/4 of all margins) and he lost the popular vote by 3 million.

[spence]

Originally Posted by detbuch

Trump thinks he is doing what is best for all the people.

Trump is doing what he thinks is best for Trump. Many if not most of our Presidents have had big egos which isn’t a bad thing. This is different.
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[Nebe]

What trump is doing is creating a circus to distract us from the fact that they are dismantling the government piece by piece and taking away protections set in place for the environment. To prove this, look no further than melanoma’s jacket stunt yesterday. “I don’t care, do you?” It’s all a circus created to cause a smoke screen.
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[The Dad Fisherman]

Originally Posted by zimmy

He is good at inciting anger. He beat the most hated candidate ever. There are plenty of people here and all over america who would never vote for her no matter what. That is not political skill beyond measure. You are demonstrating your math skills again when you say he crushed her. 45 of 58 of presidential elections were won by larger margins in the electoral college (that is 77.6% were won by more; his victory is in the bottom 1/4 of all margins) and he lost the popular vote by 3 million.

Too much kool-aid

Originally Posted by Nebe

What trump is doing is creating a circus to distract us from the fact that they are dismantling the government piece by piece and taking away protections set in place for the environment. To prove this, look no further than melanoma’s jacket stunt yesterday. “I don’t care, do you?” It’s all a circus created to cause a smoke screen.
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Too much weed

Originally Posted by spence

Trump is doing what he thinks is best for Trump. Many if not most of our Presidents have had big egos which isn’t a bad thing. This is different.
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Too many martinis and bad decisions at the DNC
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[spence]

http://thehill.com/homenews/administ...ted-immigrants

Case in point.
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[Jim in CT]

Originally Posted by zimmy

He is good at inciting anger. He beat the most hated candidate ever. There are plenty of people here and all over america who would never vote for her no matter what. That is not political skill beyond measure. You are demonstrating your math skills again when you say he crushed her. 45 of 58 of presidential elections were won by larger margins in the electoral college (that is 77.6% were won by more; his victory is in the bottom 1/4 of all margins) and he lost the popular vote by 3 million.

He’s good at angering the other side. You’re telling me that republicans are angrier than democrats? I’ll ask for the 25th time, when was the last time you saw a politically motivated riot, started by republicans? We don’t have much to be angry at at the moment, unless you live in the People’s Republic Of Connecticut.

And he crushed her, it wasn’t close. He didn’t win by a nose.

What’s on display is your inability to accept that which doesn’t serve your personal agenda.

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[Nebe]

Originally Posted by Jim in CT

He’s good at angering the other side. You’re telling me that republicans are angrier than democrats? I’ll ask for the 25th time, when was the last time you saw a politically motivated riot, started by republicans? We don’t have much to be angry at at the moment, unless you live in the People’s Republic Of Connecticut.

And he crushed her, it wasn’t close. He didn’t win by a nose.

What’s on display is your inability to accept that which doesn’t serve your personal agenda.

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he crushed her? She won the popular vote...

[Jim in CT]

Originally Posted by Nebe

he crushed her? She won the popular vote...

And according to the tally that actually matters, he clobbered her. He devised a campaign strategy around getting electoral votes. She, perhaps never having bothered to learn how a presidential election works, spent all her time in NYC and CA which she was going to win anyway. She spent almost no time in places like Wisconsin. Too many deplorables, I guess.

If the popular vote mattered a frog's fat ass, Trump would have campaigned differently, who knows how it would have tuned out. We cannot know. What we do know, is that as far as electoral math goes, it wasn't close.