This post is prompted by Jim and I watching National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets last night (B+). One of the concepts in the movie is that there is a book that each President passes down to the next that is for-President-eyes-only. In this book are the true answers behind things like the JFK assassination, Area 51, etc. With this information, the President is truly all-knowing.
In contrast, I once had a conversation with someone (I’d love to give credit to this person’s great thinking but I don’t remember who it was!) who was of the opinion that even the President doesn’t know a lot of the answers to the national conspiracies we have. Their thought was that the President has too many current issues to contend with that adding to the mix whether or not we're doing tests on aliens is too much for them to handle from both a managerial and security standpoint.
I can see both sides. Personally, I have the firm assumption that I don’t know a tenth of what’s really going on with the majority of our government. There are strategic things going on in Iraq way above my head. There are government funded studies my tax dollars are funding that I couldn't dream of. Even the stuff I do conceptually get I don’t feel educated enough to have a firm opinion. For example, the economy is “bad” according to a lot of people, including our chairman of the federal reserve. How do we fix it? Hell if I know. I’ve taken macro- and micro-economics but that is a bat of the eye compared to the amazing breath and understanding of global markets and commerce that would be needed to answer a question of “how do we fix it”. So if I blindly follow what Ben Bernanke says I feel pretty justified in doing so.
That’s why the President has advisors – because s/he can’t fully understand everything either. So, if people smarter than the President in said areas deem that certain information is beyond his/her expertise, safety or capacity for decision-making, I don’t have a problem with the President being kept in the dark to an extent.
So, if we assume just for a moment that the reigning President of the United States doesn’t know everything, it’s pretty arrogant to think that any Presidential candidate NOT IN OFFICE with MUCH more limited scope of everything can presume to make too many promises. They have their own advisors too, of course, but I doubt that McCain/Obama’s military advisor knows everything the Joint Chiefs of Staff know. So to say that the best course of action is ____ is really making a best guess. I suppose we can’t expect anything more than this at this stage. And we’d all feel less confident in the candidate if they put in caveats of “based on what I know” before every political statement, even if it would be more accurate…
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4 comments:
I am sure that political candidates do not have the "whole" scoop on different issues. How could they?!? Realistically speaking.
The president cannot know everything about everything, that would be impossible. I do, however, believe it is important for him to have some knowledge or experience in certain areas and then rely on his advisors for the advice on the rest. For example, I would like a president with leadership experience, public speaking experience, diplomacy, knowledge of world politics, military etc. I think that an economic advisor can help the president make the best economic decisions.
I also believe there is a lot of things the president may not know about, because information is withheld. There is a line from Independence day when the president asks why he was never told about area 51 and one of the advisors says "2-words plausable denialability" I bet this happens more then we think--especially regarding things like CIA and NSA intelligence gathering.
I agree that the President can't possibly know everything on everything. I think his advisors give him the information he needs to make a decision - which means he could potentially get biased information (but that would not make for a good advisor)
I agree with Jen that Presidents and Candidates should have relevant knowledge and experience in certain areas.
I don't know. Maybe I'm realistic. Maybe I'm naive. But I do beleive that the candidates don't know squat about what they're getting into, but the majority of the population does not seem to realize that. They want the one who says all the right things. Afterall, that's all they really have to base their vote off - who said what they wanted to hear. And who cares if the candidates don't know what they're getting into - that's why they have so many advisors once they're in office!!!
I just want the election to be over. I'm looking forward to that, but not to the fall leading up to it...
I think it's unrealistic to think that a president knows everything. I do however think that they know more about issues than we do(and he should) It also wouldn't surprise me if there were some things going on, like Jen mentioned above, in which an advisor intentionally left some information out to "protect the president" so they can't be held responsible for it. That said...ultimately they are responsible, whether they knew about it or not...That's the increased risk of being a boss, you are responsible for your subjects...and when you're leader of a country and the military that is quite a responsibility!
I'm a firm believer in a president surrounding himself with smart people - there's no way you can expect ANYONE to be an expert on everything this country faces. I'm sure the candidates are doing the same thing, but those guys don't have as up-to-date information on some things, most notably military operations.
These guys aren't really going to have an idea of what to do until one of them gets in office. Until then, all we're getting is pie-in-the-sky, make you feel good answers.
Yeah, the economy SEEMS to be in the toilet right now. Believe me, neither one of those yoo-hoos are going to be able to fix it. Everything is cyclical here. You can't expect to have 50 years of continuous growth. Ride it out, folks. Everything will be OK in the long run.
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