America’s Next Top President

Published March 25, 2008

By Elliot Sion

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve most likely heard about Barack Obama’s recent speech on race in America. It was eloquent, forward-thinking and, above all, a change from the usual “there are no racial divides in America” jargon.

He correctly pointed out the flaws in our society and the ongoing problems we all face as Americans in regard to race, culture, and religion. It’s more than likely that this speech will go down in history as one of the great addresses given by a U.S. politician. It’s already drawing comparison to Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and John F. Kennedy’s 1960 speech to Houston ministers on religion.

The 46-year old politician seems to have already chiseled himself a spot in American History textbooks, regardless of the outcome of this year’s presidential election. But while these lofty speeches are full of values and morality, they can’t be the deciding factor of who our next president will be.

As much as this election seems like a reality talent show competition, it’s actually a race to become (arguably) the most important person on the planet. To avoid another eight-year mistake, we need to vote on the issues, not the likeability and principles of the candidates. We Americans have an apparent inability to vote on what’s important.

It’s absolutely absurd the way Obama’s opponents have played the “Muslim” card, and almost equally absurd the way Obama has rebuked the claims. Every time a photograph or out-of-context quote appears suggesting that Barack Obama has Muslim ties, half the country cries afoul and pulls out their assault rifles in fear that our next president could be one of them. And every time it happens, Obama comes out with a statement along the lines of “I am a good Christian, not a Muslim,” as if to suggest that there would be anything wrong with being anything other than a “good Christian.”

The issue of religion should play, if anything, a minor role in deciding a future president (the same goes for people who decided Mitt Romney would be a bad Commander in Chief simply because he’s a Mormon), and at the very least, should take an extreme back seat to issues of foreign policy, domestic affairs, and prior record (with an emphasis on prior record - don’t vote simply because a candidate says something. Remember, occasionally politicians will stretch the truth).

Secondly, and probably more importantly, millions of Americans have fallen over backwards and fainted (literally) because of Senator Obama’s speeches, which are uplifting, avant-garde and thoughtfully put together. And I’m pretty sure a large group of people will end up deciding their vote based on what he has or hasn’t said, or, similarly, what Clinton and McCain have or haven’t said. But lest we forget recent history and some of the monstrous leadership during the 20th century, a good orator does not necessarily translate into a good leader, and can sometimes lead to the opposite.

We’ll be sitting around for a while longer to see who our next president will be. Most likely, we’ll hear a lot of good sound bites, and some very interesting tabloid pieces about the secret religious and private lives of the candidates. We’ll hear some ridiculous accusations, and some equally ridiculous rebuttals. The media will scrutinize every sentence and make each seem controversial.

We’ll hear stories that a candidate performed as a stripper in college, or that he associated with stoners, or that he had a gay lover in grad school, or any of a million other stupid fabrications. But we need to remember that a president is (or should be, anyway) chosen not for his or her youthful associations, orations or past escapades, but for his or her ability to run a country.

Print This Article

Comments