What Qualities are REALLY Needed to be Commander and Chief?

Let's be blunt.  The days of kings suiting up in armor and riding off onto the battlefield to lead their armies have been gone for centuries.  The president is not expected to go down onto the battlefield and personally direct troops or engage in combat.  So in reality, whether or not someone actually personally served in the military is a mute point.  Being a soldier and being a president are too entirely different things, and being good at one does not make you good at the other.

 So what DOES a commander and chief need to be able to do?

1. Surround himself with smart, capable people.  As president, you depend on the people around you to gather information, obtain resources, and help develop plans.  The commander and chief needs to be able to put people in positions that they are qualified to handle, and be willing to hold them accountable for those positions.

2. Be willing to listen to opposing views.  As president, if you only listen to the "yes men" you never get the information you really need to hear to make good decisions.  You need to be able to listen to the ideas of those you may disagree with, and even if they don't change you mind, you need to be able to understand how they came to their decision.  This lets you effectively work with your people to get the job done.

3. Be diligent.  As president, you are going to have to process metric tons worth of information on a day to day basis, information that will be essential to formulating solutions.  Making snap judgements basis on instincts can lead to dead soldiers.  You need to have a person in the position who is actually interested in learning and is willing to learn. 

4. Be calm under pressure.  In a crisis, people look to the president for how to respond.  If you are running around like a chicken with your head cut off, that makes everyone around you anxious.

5. Be able to inspire.  The greatest skill a president needs is to inspire greatness in those around him.  The president does not have the power to do a lot on his own.  He needs to be able to rally people around him in order to unite for a common cause.

In all these things, Barack Obama is miles ahead of McCain.  McCain likes to discredit Obama as "a great orator", as if being able to inspire people is not important to being president.  I guess if you are McCain, you expect people to just simply OBEY without question.  McCain thinks of Obama as an intellectual elitist, but you need someone with strong cerebral attributes to sort through the countless complexities of the world today.  Sarah Palin's famous "You can't blink" ignores the fact that the world is not an old cowboy movie with two gunslingers dueling it out.  Sometimes the best decision requires taking a step back and looking at the bigger, longterm picture.  Just look at the McCain campaign machine versus the Obama campaign machine.  McCain's camp has been engaged in infighting and constant misteps, while Obama's has run like a finely tuned race car.

McCain looks at the rest of the world with a "you're either with us or against us" worldview, a dangerous black and white vision that does not acknowledge cultural, economic, and political realities of the world.  Obama looks at the rest of the world as potential allies, united in a common purpose of bringing about a better world for everyone. 

McCain speaks in terms of "I" and "Me."  McCain tells you what he is going to do, and the realities of the world be damned.  Obama speaks in terms of "us" and "we."  Obama asks each of us to take on personal responsibility and work together for a greater good.

McCain tells you to vote for him because Obama is a "socialist, communist, elitist, fill-in-the-blank."  In short, you should vote for McCain because Obama is scary, not because McCain is the best choice.  Obama asks you to vote for him because he has developed a plan to take the country in a different direction, a direction that leads away from the failed Bush policies of the last eight years, and spells out his plan in no uncertain terms.

McCain's world is one of "us" versus "them."  A world of "baby killers" versus "Good Christians."  Of "socialists" versus "Pro-Americans."  A world of "atheists" versus "God-fearing citizens."

 Obama's world is one of unity.  A world where you bring opposing viewpoints to the table and try to find a common ground.  A world where negative labels take a back seat to trying to understand the other side's point of view.

So on Tuesday, you have to ask yourself who's world do you want to live in?