Do we even know what we want?

[Jack]

When I look at a new job, one of the first things I pay attention to is the job description and the job requirements. What does the company expect from me, what tools do they provide to achieve those expectations, how clearly do they spell out what my job entails?

Where do we provide this type of information for someone who wants to become president of the country? Where do we precisely lay out what we expect him or her to do, how we expect them to achieve those goals, what standard we have established to measure job performance against?

According to efficiency experts, the best way to approach a complicated job (like creating and marketing a new product or reducing the national debt, for example) is to break the large job into smaller steps. By taking each of those smaller steps, the larger job is eventually accomplished.

Why do we allow candidates to make all sorts of promises to solve major issues in the U.S. without asking what steps they intend to take to accomplish those goals? Why is there so little debate regarding the steps that need to be taken? We seem to agree on most of the major goals, but there's little discussion of the smaller steps we need to take to reach those goals. We don't suggest them to the candidates and they don't enumerate them to us.

It seems to me that we don't really have a clear idea of what the role of president should be or what we expect of the president. Who in their right mind would seek or accept a job so poorly defined, with goals and expectations so poorly enunciated, with the tools to accomplish their job so poorly understood and unpredictable?

[ZNFYRH]

Quote by: Isherwood Why do we allow candidates to make all sorts of promises to solve major issues in the U.S. without asking what steps they intend to take to accomplish those goals? Why is there so little debate regarding the steps that need to be taken? We seem to agree on most of the major goals, but there's little discussion of the smaller steps we need to take to reach those goals. We don't suggest them to the candidates and they don't enumerate them to us.

I heard a similar sentiment on Paul Harvey's radio show.

Instead of telling The Rest of the Story, he talked about Bush and Kerry. He talked about how both of them say they know how to fix the country and they know how to solve all of America's problems.

Then he said that if either of them cared about America even half as much as they claimed, they would just say how to fix the country regardless of being elected.

He said that he does not respect someone doing the equivalent of selling the solution on the grounds of nobility but setting the price as votes.