Hey Republicans: So you want to fire Obama? Let's take a look at the job description.
Job Opening: President of the United States of America
Start Date: January 20, 2013
Term: Four years. The president cannot serve more than two terms.
Job Description: The Constitution assigns the president two roles: chief executive of the federal government and Commander in Chief of the armed forces. As Commander in Chief, the president has the authority to send troops into combat, and is the only one who can decide whether to use nuclear weapons.
As chief executive, he enforces laws, treaties, and court rulings; develops federal policies; prepares the national budget; and appoints federal officials. He also approves or vetoes acts of Congress and grants pardons.
Qualifications: Natural-born citizen, 35 years of age or older, has resided within the United States for at least the previous 14 years.
Salary Requirements: The President shall, at stated times, receive for his services, a compensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that period any other emolument from the United States, or any of them.
Note: Emolument is a legal term which refers to all wages and other benefits received as compensation in return for holding an office or performance of an employment.
Preferred Characteristics: Excellent leadership skills, intelligence, honesty, moral/ethical, excellent communication skills, wise, uses sound judgment -
wisdom requires a set of cognitive and motivational qualities that increase the likelihood that a person will make the optimal decision in a particular situation, a decision that leads to a course of action that will maximize the greatest good for the greatest number,
Psychological research on wisdom has identified a number of such characteristics, but three dominate most conceptualizations of wisdom (Helson & Srivastava, 2002; Sternberg, 1990).
1. Wise people recognize that the world is in flux and that circumstances are likely to change over time. Thus, the wise person displays ongoing openness, flexibility, and a willingness to change one’s course of action as the situation changes. Rigidity and closed-mindedness do not tend to lead to wise decisions.
2. Wise people recognize the limits of their own knowledge and acknowledge the possibility that their personal beliefs, perspectives, and preferred courses of action are often not optimal and, in fact, are sometimes incorrect. Assuming that no one knows everything or has an inside route to intellectual or moral truth, wisdom requires intellectual humility. Wise people seek and rely on ideas and feedback from other people, and change their preconceptions about the best course of action based on other people’s input. And, the more divergent the advisors who are consulted, the wiser the final decision is likely to be.
3. Wise people know that achieving the common good requires them to take all interests and perspectives into account in an effort to see the big picture. Wisdom also involves making a concerted effort to transcend one’s own biases and personal interests when they might not be optimal for most people. Not only must solutions be found that promote the well-being of the greatest number, but given that everybody’s views are inherently egocentric and biased, wise leaders know that the approach that they personally prefer may not, in fact, be the best decision. So, wisdom requires searching for genuine compromise when disagreements and conflicts arise.
President Obama has demonstrated wisdom, has Mitt Romney?
Compare the two candidates' views on various issues.
In 2008, Americans took a chance on Barack Obama because he provided a vision of an America for the 21st century, one of opportunity and fairness. From day one, the GOP planned to obstruct and make President Obama "a one term president". The Republicans put party, a radical social agenda and business interests ahead of governing on behalf of the American citizens they represent.
Imagine how effective the Obama administration would have been had it had the federal budget and officals necessary to carry out the job. As late as February 2012, Senate Republicans refused to allow the Senate to move forward with a vote on 90 pending nominees to federal positions. Since the 112th Congress was sworn in, the threat of a federal government shutdown has been the m.o. of both the House and Senate Republicans. In spite of constant and unrelenting obstruction, President Obama and his administration have used the Constitution to do whatever they could to improve the lives of the American people.
As Commander-in-Chief, President Obama has shown skill and diplomacy. He returned credibility to American foreign policy. I don't want war to ever be our President's first inclination. I want the only person who has the power to launch nuclear weapons to be the person who wants to restrict the use of nuclear weapons.
A President Romney would be disastrous for all but the few at the top. In the global economy in which Mitt Romney resides, I don't see him as putting the American people's needs ahead of those who want to extract what's left of our natural and financial resources. Nothing in his resume demonstrates otherwise.
Let's rehire Barack Obama for the position of President of the United States.