A commentary on the responsibilites of the President - any President.

I am always somewhat annoyed or amused (quite situational) when the President - any President - is blamed for a problem or given credit for a good thing.

When that one man is expected to be America's All Knowing & Ever Present leader, I wonder if the critics of the President - any President - or the media actually thinks the public is so small minded as to say...

"Yeah! The President IS to blame for traffic! He should have come to my hometown and talked with the city council about the problem, then dropped gold bricks out of Air Force One on his way out of town to pay for the project!"

The kicker is I think most of the public DOES think that, to a degree. Perhaps not quite to that extent - but I know they are out there as I have met them. They typically vote down a party line regardless of the individual. Hint – bad idea. I wish I could vote for Zell and I’m a libertarian.

The irony is that by all accounts the President has little to no control over the information given to him. His appointees appoint people who are trusted to filter info, feed it to said appointee, who then filter it again for their brief interaction with the President. After all, the laws of time and space still apply - he has 24 hours in a day.

To saddle the President - any President - with ALL of OUR problems is so silly as to deserve a good hard slap. I know it is a lot much to ask, but how about this -

A) Judge EVERY person, including the President, by the things they choose to focus on and then how effective they are at those things.

B) Recognize that there are 24 hours in a day and a billion or so problems the country faces.

C) Grasp the concepts of delegation, an individual states responsibilities, and that we SHOULD'T WANT THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO TRY TO FIX EVERYTHING. Or the state government. Or the local government…

Because they can't. Historically everything government does gets big and expensive. They should do as little as possible but since everyone in the world - literally - has their hand out and they tend to throw money at problems.

So I suggest the following - when selecting your President look for the following traits...

Someone who will say what they mean and then do what they say.

Someone who puts America's needs before any other countries. Sorry if this offends you but I don't pay my tax dollars to support foreign nations. I do it to defend us, educate children, and build roads.

Someone who DOESN'T MAKE PROMISES THEY CAN'T BACK UP. Which is really any promise to make stuff happen from that office. There are all these annoying checks and balances - just ask Putin - that make it so the Congress has to do stuff, then the courts have to say that stuff is OK. Silly but it works better than anything else we have.

I don't think it really matters who you vote for President in that they can't do much without a willing congress. And that is a great thing. I LIKE a government in gridlock - they spend a hell of a lot less money. So if Bush wins, great, especially with a balanced or Democratic senate and Republican House. If Kerry wins, God help us, a Republican House AND Senate could possibly save us.

But stop kidding yourself about how many things the President did right, or wrong. He is only one man. Suck it up and do something for yourself and your community, and inspire others to do the same. The results might surprise you - and you might have less time to worry about what the President SHOULD have done.

*Disclaimer - This article is a compilation of thoughts I stole from other people. Don't be mad at me, everything you write is as well.