Apprentice President?
Had a great time with great friends tonight, even though we dared enter into the treacherous waters of politics.
We’ve known each other for 15 years, but politics never really came up before, so it was interesting to hear that most of us are pretty much in sync with our view of the recent election. It was also good to see that any differences with some of the folks were not divisive, we just disagreed and left it at that.
But one interesting thought came out of the discussion: Why not have an apprentice or training period for presidents?
When we started this whole USA thing, life was much simpler. Maybe it was no big deal for someone to get elected and then, with little or no experience, just jump into the president gig.
But now? Not so simple. The problems facing our new president would overwhelm even someone with strong qualifications and extensive experience as an executive and leader; the man we are looking to for leadership is a good script reader who will hopefully surround himself with adults who can put the right words on the teleprompter.
In what other field do we hire someone into a position where he has no qualifications or experience? We would, at the very least, expect a new hire to go through a training period, no? Chef, heavy equipment operator, project manager, surgeon… thousands of other jobs, all requiring some experience, training, knowledge… all apparently except elected positions like president.
So… why not? What’s stopping us from adjusting to the complexities of our world? Why not hold elections two years before the new president takes office, have him or her train under the current president and then take office after a two year apprentice period.
There would likely be challenges, like dealing with huge egos and folks calling for the backup to come into the game every time they don’t like what the starter is doing… but isn’t that better than handing over the keys to the country without any training? Think about it, for the first 6-12 months we can expect all those friendly dictators out there to test this guy (Biden’s words); wouldn’t it be better if this guy (or any guy) actually was already up to speed with the job before he had to pass the test.
We can’t afford our presidents to flunk tests, so I think we should find a way to make sure they have had sufficient time to study, don’t you?
All that from one margarita… think what we could have come up with after a few more 
Stumble it!