Ellison
Member
- Jan 28, 2016
- 65
- 6
- 6
I fail to understand what any of this has to do with JWoodie's post.Important in defining policy within the confines of the law, which they do not define, yes. As for the 'first hundred days' tradition, it's no more than an attempt to jump start the term of that President; as well as set the tone, and type of their agenda. It really is just that simple. It has been, and will continue to be, rare that a President will exact lasting, substantial change during the first one hundred days in office.The 'we' in the question is vague. People support widely different policies and thus will want widely different things. I wish people voted more on their policy preferences than personal preferences, but I can only control who I support. What I want in a president is someone that closely matches my policy preferences. That will always trump any personal element about them. It is all well and good to have a lovely person for president, but it does me no good if I disagree with all of their policies.
Isn't your reliance on "policy" at odds with the Constitutional authority and duties of the President? Other than submitting a proposed budget to Congress each year, the President is supposed to carry out the will of the people as expressed through their elected representatives.
Policy "debates" during the Presidential election cycle are little more than free air time for candidates to throw sound bites at unsophisticated voters. As such, their principal value is as a gauge of the extent to which a candidate is willing to pander to his/her audience.
Are you saying that when you look at history the president does not have much of an impact on policy? The White House has quite a strong influence on policy. That will not change regardless if someone likes it or not. The 'first hundred days' tradition did not appear out of thin air. I can understand why you think presidents shouldn't be important to policy but, in reality, they do.
Yes, many fail the hundred days. But you just mentioned the keyword: agenda. The president's agenda is very important for the policy changes that will happen in the term. The amount of influence a president maintains over his own party within Congress is important to the policymaking process. When presidential candidates state their policy preferences (or, rather, list them on their website and vaguely allude to them on the campaign trail), it is them trying to convince those paying attention as to what the agenda will be.
The OP asked what we want in a president. I said policies. A discussion ensued (with the OP). What is the problem?