Candidates For President

Imagine that you are a member of the board of directors. It is your job to decide which person will get the job as the new chief executive officer of a large organization. This is a very serious matter. If you make a bad decision you can be sued, you may end up forfeiting all of your assets. Your children and grandchildren may be forced to serve in the military, in war time. They might even be killed.

So what are the most important things we should be looking for in the person trying to get this job?

LEADERSHIP--Has the candidate got a track record of being a leader; the type of person who people choose to follow. Not just a manager and certainly not a dictator, but the type of person who rises to the top because people like him, think he is an honest person, trust him to be fair, and have faith in his judgment.

HONESTY--Can you trust what this guy tells you? Does he have integrity? You only need to think about Richard Nixon or George W. Bush to see how vital this is.

INTELLIGENCE--Is this a smart person who has the ability to take in the available facts and then come to the proper decision? John F. Kennedy was a speed reader. George W. Bush doesn’t read books and has a terrible vocabulary.

If I were involved with making this decision I would be very suspicious of the honesty and intellectual integrity of any candidate who says they really do believe in the tooth fairy, the Easter bunny, or Santa Claus. They have faith in them. True believers. Or that virgins can have babies, and that every word in the bible is the literal truth.

The leadership around the world is increasingly dominated by religious fanatics. Romney wants to roll back the separation of church and state and get religion actively involved. This takes him out as far as I am concerned.

Hillary Clinton has a good intellect, but her track record gives no indication that she is a natural leader. A lot of people have concerns about her honesty and integrity too.

From my perspective John McCain, Bill Richardson, and Barack Obama have the necessary qualifications.