Who should we nominate to represent the GOP in a fight against President Obama for the 2012 presidential election? I believe the name of the candidate which fills the majority of the answers in the following 10 questions (in no particular order of importance) deserves your vote.
The first five questions below (in Part 1) lean more toward who the candidate is rather than what he or she can do. The last five questions (in Part 2) lean more toward what they must be able to do rather than who they are.
Based upon the characters and track records of the GOP candidates:
10) Who is most committed to follow and lead by the U.S. Constitution?
I’m not talking about someone with merely a verbal commitment to the Constitution, but one who actively quotes and supports it. It’s one thing to take the presidential oath of office, but who has the strongest track record of citing and standing by the Constitution?
James Madison, America’s fourth president and one regarded as the “Father of the Constitution,” explained: “The aim of every political constitution is, or ought to be, first to obtain for rulers men who possess most wisdom to discern, and most virtue to pursue, the common good of the society; and in the next place, to take the most effectual precautions for keeping them virtuous whilst they continue to hold their public trust.”
Strictly following the Constitution includes restoring a Tenth Amendment balance of power to our states and shifting solutions away from an “only government” savior (to which Obama committed early in his presidency) to encouraging local communities, agencies and even neighborhoods across our nation to rally together, strategize and resurrect the Golden Rule in caring for their own, just as it was done in America’s heydays.
9) Who has the greatest leadership ability to rally, unify and mobilize citizens across political and societal spectrums?
Everything rises or falls on leadership. It’s true for a family, company or nation, and I believe it is a particularly quintessential ingredient in our next president because of the increasing political and social divisions (including class warfare) across our land and around our world.
I believe our country was duped to interpret our current president’s charisma as reflecting leadership abilities. Pitting political parties and polarizing social classes against one another isn’t leadership.
In November 2008, I warned of this leadership crisis and peril if Obama was elected in an column I wrote titled, “A personality profile of Obama’s leadership,” based upon a professional personality profile conducted by a Unit for the Study of Personality in Politics at St. John’s University and the College of St. Benedict, which concluded Obama was a conciliating people pleaser.
As I wrote then, “It’s one thing to be political, but it’s quite another to be a chronic people pleaser under pressure. Swaying [others] based on political expediency is not a leadership quality we need in tough times. Sooner or later, that character flaw will bite Obama big-time – and us, too, if we elect him president.”
I believe America’s woes have been exacerbated by Obama’s inexperience and lack of executive leadership, and our country and world are suffering for it.
More than ever, we need a new president who has a proven track record to rally a team of Washington rivals as well as a diversified American public and world. As I’ve written extensively in a previous column, I firmly believe that the candidate who extends a public invitation to all his GOP rivals to be a part of the same administration could start a chain reaction leading to their nomination and election?
