"President School" -- What do you think it could or should be?

[Sparkly]

Here's a very simple job description for POTUS from Scholastic:

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.

http://teacher.scholastic.com/researchtools/articlearchives/civics/presres/prsnapsh.htm

My question to you is: What's the ideal preparation for this job? What should or could "President School" look like? What's in the curriculum? What should be on the resume of an ideal candidate for this job?

[robbedvoter]

1. 1. Have a deep understanding of history

2. proven knowledge of economics
3.proven diplomatic experience
4 Knowledge of war/peace matters
5. Be a liberal and not ashamed to admit it

[FrenchieCat]

2. President School does NOT need to include....

The Senate OR the house

President School DOES NOT equate Politician School.

In POLITICIAN SCHOOL, elected officials learn how to:

1. Not tell the truth if it might hurt politically.

2. communicate using Nuance so that even he/she can't understand what he/she is saying.

3. Make promises and then hope constituents will forget the promises.

4. Get Strings attached to special interest and corporations.

5. Utilize and exploit any tragedy occuring and that tragedies make great photo ops..... Or, flying in a plane over affected areas will raise approval points.

6. Think that talking the talk can be seen as walking the walk....just as long as no one is looking or listening.

7. Think that sitting in a room with a lot of other congresspersons mean that you have expertise in the subject matter being discussed (see committees).

8. How to read poll figures and how put finger to wind for testing purposes before deciding what to stand for.

9. Kiss losta Presstitute and media-hoe Ass.

10. Kiss constituent ass only, only, only as a last resort, or right before an election.

11. Lie about any opponent that might get in the way of your victory.

12. Stand up straight while in line to feed off the public draught.

13. Vote yourself a raise whenever possible.

14. Walk around and feel important and smarter than other just "mere" constituent mortals.

15. Learn that Public service doesn't really mean service...but rather being served.

16. Always make sure not to stand alone on any issue unless at least 1/2 of your constituents have emailed, faxed or called you and have asked that you stand up for them. Then think about it....and then think about it some more. Always ask yourself, What kind of media exposure will I get for this? If good, do it. If bad, think about it some more....or wait till 2/3 of your constituents have contacted you.

17. Always remember that it's not what you know, but who you know.

18. Talk a lot when you are on the "floor"....but always remember that making sense is not a pre-requisite.

[leyton]

3. Being governor of a state.

Seriously. The governor of a state has all the roles of a President except that he does not control the military and he does not have foreign policy. But the rest of the executive, legislative, and political leadership is involved.

[FrenchieCat]

7. Seriously....

funny that the issue of voters trusting the President with our National Security is what sunk this election for Dems.

Ironic that Governors really don't bring that quality to the table...as you point out.

Seriously too bad.

[dogman]

9. Our last Governor is about to be indicted.

Our present pResident should be, both for his time as Governor and pResident. Not such a good background IMO. How many bring their small time corruption to the big show?

[Guaranteed]

4. This is a great, great, idea.

Never heard of anything like it. Great post.

And I think post #1 just about summed it up for me.

Wow. President school. :) They oughta have to be licensed.

[Stinky The Clown]

5. The one's who need licenses are the dumbass voters

[Sgent]

6. School...

1) Knowledge of hsitory
2) Knowledge of Economics

Experience
1) Govenor of State -- nothing else comes close to this ideal
2) Some sort of active duty military experience

[LeftyMom]

10. I disagree about the military experience

Some of our best presidents never were in the military. Some religions and many people's non-religious philosophies don't allow for military service.

Critical thinking is more important. A president who never served in the military but is intelligent and has good advisors should be able to manage an effective military campaign.

[FrenchieCat]

11. I don't think the military experience hurts....

but it doesn't have to be required.

However, National Security knowledge is important in this 9/11 "voters voting for their security" type of world we now live in ...

whether we like it or not....
whether we will admit that National security is an issue, it was and will be since 9/11.

It lost us the last election to be honest...and could cost us some others.

[Donna Zen]

12. Military Service

The questions about the relationship between the military/national security/national defense are limited to Democratic candidates of recent elections. Although most presidents have had military experience with 11 of them being generals, the issue never rose to prominence.

Republicans do not face this requirement, it is assumed that they are "tough on defense." How this happened is probably a long and snarky tale, but what matters is that it did happen and we must deal with it.

Voting for every weapons system as some/many Democrats do, does not solve the problem. Long lists of Senate votes often hold traps for the most hawkish of our current representatives. It is not the reality that counts; it's the meme. I disagree with this view, but it doesn't change the political landscape.

BTW, Nixon was a Quaker and served in the Navy by choice.

Personally, I do want a president to have foreign policy experience. That is an area where presidents have much more autonomy than in any other. Advisers are all well and good, but obviously without a knowledgeable president you often get a policy that was not the one you voted for. At best, you get a murky stew of half-cooked ideas. It took Clinton several years to get a real hold of foreign policy, he never won the trust of the majority of the military, and we ended up with Cohen, a republican, to protect Clinton, but a president who could not challenge the Pentagon pork. Finally, we missed an opportunity to solidify a foreign policy that would have preempted the PNAC.

[LeftyMom]

13. Nixon also drank, was anti-semetic and supported the draft

which leads me to suspect he wasn't much of a Friend.

I get the political justification but we're gong to face attacks on defense anyhow. Just look what happened to Kerry and he had a freakin Purple Heart. For that matter, look what they did to McCain (and he's a repub!)

Edited to fix bad spelling

[MuseRider]

8. It sounds like

a good idea but you have to make them pay attention and in this case I am afraid nothing would have helped, he just is not interested.