The Right Stuff..

I was watching a program on CNN hosted by that squinting Anderson Cooper, (I know, maybe he can't help it), called "Extreme Challenges". It was an interesting discussion about the..well, extreme challenges the next president will face when he takes office. The two experts former presidential advisor David Gurgin and Fareed Zakaria of Newsweek and CNN and a bunch of good books ie; "Post World America". They discussed everything from nukes in Iran to job creation as obstacles in the way next presidents success. All the tough choices he will have to make.

Among the things that the new president must do is get the American public to understand that not only is the United States in crisis economically but in order to turn it around is going to require sacrifice. Paying $4 and up for gas. More money for food and other basics. If everyone is to receive world class health care than the services offered will have to be rationed. No you can't get 6 MRI's maybe you can only get 2 or 3 a year.

Obviously politicians can't and most won't talk about sacrifice to a Walmart, Costco, Sam's Club society that we have become. Barack Obama has hinted at the notion of sacrifice but has not expanded too much. The Americans that brought us out of the depression and fought in WWII in shared sacrifice of a national causes are retired or dead. For a politician to ask their constituents to give something up in today's America is political suicide.

With 2 wars, the financial pressure of the deficit and the rise of the rest of the world economically and the nuke inevitably in Iran means that the next president will have to be able to get the world involved with global warming and shoring up the credit markets along with making sure the war on terror does not turn out like the American war on drugs.

So the next president will have to have the "right stuff". The ability to bring much need credibility and leadership back to the US. Because, believe it or not the world wants the United States to lead on issues like global warming. The cowboy, unilateral American diplomacy of the Bush administration has meant that the world is not looking for an American leader that knows how to win wars, as John McCain has so infamously said. But a president that has the ability to listen compromise and act as a partner in the world community.

I have pointed out in past blogs that I believe that Barack Obama, given his background and upbringing, is more connected and in tuned with the world community than any other candidate in this campaign. It takes more than being a black candidate to bring out 200,000 Germans waving American flags. Given the recent closeness in the polls here in the States it proves that maybe the Europeans are ahead of the US in more than alternative energy commuter trains and smaller servings sizes.