Essay, Research Paper
Ever since the United States decided to have a president, there has always been controversy on how to elect the right leader of our country. We will be looking at the qualifications such as: accomplishments, experiences in education, government, military, political and world views, and character needed in a person to be the best leader possible to represent this country.
What qualifications should be used in electing a president? There are many qualifications that should be met in order to be elected the president. He/she must have a good educational background, show evidence of accomplishments, experience in government and military, policy expertise, and he/she must have good character.
Accomplishments and experience are two important qualifications to look for in a presidential candidate. He/she must have a good educational background to be able to lead our whole country. Everyday he/she would be facing numerous problems and obstacles. The president must know the smartest thing to do in every situation. They must know the difference between resolutions that last short amounts of time and ones that will continue to help our country far into the future. A presidential candidate must also show evidence of accomplishments throughout their life and most importantly have experience in the government. Experience in military is also a big advantage in a candidate. They’d have knowledge and experience in situations of war if it were to arise. These skills in a president would greatly assist him/her to do a better job running the country.
Probably the most controversial quality a president could have would have to be his/her political views on our country, along with the role it plays with the rest of the world. When a candidate speaks about how he/she is going to change the country, the
audience can make or break the candidate. Even though there is going to be some people that don’t agree with what the president says, the majority of the people agree on certain issues that the president focuses on. The candidate should have knowledge on what the public wants and their opinions on the world, but should also keep their views as close to their own as possible. Along with focusing on our own country’s problems he/she must also focus on what is going on around the world and how it will or may affect our own country. The candidate must be able to convince the public that he/she can resolve our country’s problems and improve it in any way possible.
Even though character may not be the most important quality the citizens of this country have made electing a president into a popularity contest. What really should count though is the candidate’s true character rather than how the public perceives him/her. So how would you know a candidate’s true character without actually knowing them personally? I feel the best judgement of character comes from knowledge of their past. Some good things to aide you with this knowledge would be how the candidate did in school, what they did with their lives, how they get along with family members and friends, and their willingness to help others. Character to me is the qualities that make up a person, good and bad. If a person inspires to become president his/her character should consist of many good qualities. A leader should be honest, caring but also strict, loyal, he/she must set a good example for people to follow, ambition and desire to improve our country in any way possible, and he/she must be moral and ethical. Those are just a few characteristics needed in a person if they are to make a good president. For example, our current president Clinton, in my opinion has been a good one. He has done many things to improve our country and as president for eight years he’s gotten a lot done. However as a result of some bad character choices he is probably disliked by most of the public and will be looked back at as a joke to our country. Good character is an important value and it should play a part in the voter’s decision. Though it shouldn’t be the deciding factor.
The topics I’ve discussed in this paper are all very important factors in determining who the best president would be, but in my opinion the most important issue to base our decision on is how the candidate feels about political issues facing our country. This is the subject we should be basing most of our decision on, not who’s the most popular. Most importantly we need to know and have faith that the person whom we elect to be president will be the right choice. Hopefully we choose the one that will make the right decisions to improve our country and make it a better place. Sometimes you have to look at not only the character of the candidates but also the character of the people who are electing our president.