I have my personal filter for potential candidates for
president of the United States. For what
it is worth, here it is:
A) I want someone who has actually
governed before, actually met a budget and negotiated with a legislature and dealt
with the sort of problems a government faces.
That means, in effect, I want someone who has at least governed a state before. Reagan, Carter, Clinton and George W. Bush
had all been governors. Bush’s father, H.
W. Bush had not been a governor before becoming President, but he had been Vice-President. Obama had not been a governor or had any
significant legislative experience before, and it shows.
He still has absolutely no idea how to negotiate with Congress, not even
with members of his own party.
This filter alone eliminates
Donald Trump, Ben Carson, Hillary Clinton, Carly Fiorina and Bernie Sanders, all the current front
runners in both parties.
B) I want someone who is not a
scientific ignoramus. I don’t require that they have a doctorate in a field of
science, but that at least they understand the value of the scientific method
and have some respect for widely-held views in the scientific community. In particular, I have no interest in voting
for anyone who, despite the overwhelming consensus among climate scientists,
still believes climate change is a fraud.
This filter eliminates a number of
those with governing experience, including Jeb Bush (governor of Florida) ,
Mike Huckabee (governor of Arkansas) , Mike Pence (governor of Indiana), and
Rick Perry (governor of Texas). Scott
Walker (governor of Wisconsin) and Bobby
Jindal (governor of Louisiana) are
unknowns – they keep dodging the question.
It also eliminates Ben Carson, though he was already eliminated above.
C) I want someone who doesn’t have
a religious agenda to force their own religious views on issues like abortion
and gay marriage down everyone else’s throats.
That eliminates most of the remaining Republican contenders who haven’t already
been eliminated by (A) and (B) above.
Notice that I haven’t even dealt yet
with policy issues of substance, like fiscal policy or foreign affairs or immigration
policy, and yet we have already eliminated almost everyone in the field.
Of the candidates currently in the
field, the only contenders who look like they might possibly pass these three
filters are Chris Christie (governor of New Jersey, but currently only a blip
in the polls) and Vice President Joe Biden (and he hasn’t even decided to run
yet).
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