Why do you want to be president, I asked. He looked at me like I was crazy.
Are you kidding, he answered after a moment. I could do so much good. I could take the country on a different path. I could be a historic symbol of our progress as a nation and a people.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I replied. But for heavens sakes, man, do you know what you’ll be inheriting? Look at the economy. Decades of overspending, over borrowing, consumption over infrastructure, so much money flowing up and so little trickling down. And the last eight years have made everything much, much worse.
We can turn that around, he insisted. Not quickly, not all at once, but it can be done. I mean, I’d be President so I could do that. Especially with a Democratic congress.
With friends like that, I thought. I answered aloud, though, by asking about those greedy clowns on Wall Street. You believe they’ll back away from the trough now just because they almost bankrupted the world?
Not to worry, he replied. They’ve learned their lesson and will be less greedy in the future. To guarantee that, I”d be bringing in an experienced team that’s used to dealing with these folks, and they’ll see they don’t go pig again.
Sure. Right. No doubt about it. An experienced team whose only experience is shilling for Wall Street, I muttered, but just to myself. I didn’t want to come down too hard on this guy. I liked him. He really did have potential. It’s just that he was planning to play against a flagrantly rigged deck.
O.K, I said So you take steps to bring the economy back. Tame Wall Street, I don’t think this economic invalid is gonna bounce back any time soon. I also don’t think the Wall Street vulture is suddenly gonna become a vegetarian. But let’s say you at least give it the old Harvard try. How about all those foreign policy potholes the last guys in power sunk us into?
He actually smiled. You think I can’t put together a better, a saner foreign policy than the Cheney gang? You think I can’t put in place a better run Pentagon than Rumsfeld?
Well, I agreed (sort of), you set your standards that low, you’ll always be successful. But again, you’re not just inheriting a white elephant here. You’re being bequeathed a herd of the things. Sure, you can avoid a Saigon-style scoot out in Iraq, but that’s gonna be a hot bed of trouble for years anyway. You can’t finish in Afghanistan because that will never be finished. You won’t start another unwinable war in Iran, which is good, but that doesn’t solve all our problems with those people. And North Korea? The inmates run the asylum over there. It could blow anytime.
I know, I know, he said, looking down and thinking hard. Always thinking hard, this guy. Something I really liked about him. Not that I thought it would end up getting the country where he so wanted it to be. A nice personal characteristic, though.
But, he went on to insist. They’ll be improvements. A new direction. That I can do. And don’t forget, I’ll have a prosperous and stable EU to back me up.
Personally I’ve never assumed Europeans could get things right for very long. But maybe this time around that would be different. Then I started throwing out a few of the other things that might undermine his tenure in office.
Scandals involving key people in your administration. One or two of them dies suddenly. Another 911. An environmental tragedy worse than the Exxon Valdez. Massively destructive earthquake, volcano, hurricanes…
Wait a second. Wait just one darn second, he interrupted. No one can blame me for an earthquake, a volcano, or a hurricane. I mean, let’s be fair and sensible here.
Poor, poor man. He wanted to be President and nonetheless expected he’ll be judged fairly and sensibly. I wished him well and walked away. Knowing this very bright and well-meaning guy was gonna take his political lumps.
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