The Dude I Wish Was Running for POTUS
Right here.
A genuine leader. Better qualified to be President of the United States than all four members of the two tickets combined.
Too late for a draft…but there’s always 2012!
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Zenpundit is a blog dedicated to exploring the intersections of foreign policy, history, military theory, national security,strategic thinking, futurism, cognition and a number of other esoteric pursuits.
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August 30th, 2008 at 4:44 am
We can hope & pray either winner begs him to stay on for their term…..
While money is certainly not his prime motivation (well, perhaps a very generous series of donations to his Alma Maters), a shame we do not embrace the Singapore system of actually paying key officials what their worth would be in the private sector, at least in cases of extreme importance such as his. He is without a doubt our most valued public servant.
August 30th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
Interesting that you mention the "minister-mentor" system. Singapore is a small power playing every card to the maximum every time in the most strategic way – they should as their prosperity and independence depend upon it.
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Contrast how we squander virtually every opportunity because of our vast advantages to where our success points are almost random events.
August 30th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
That is a sobering insight. At what point do our vast advantages start to wane? Perhaps decades from now.
August 30th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
An interesting choice Mark. I doubt Secretary Gates would run though, he seems to shy away from the idiotic political discourse in our country, something essential to gain the democratic and republican nominations in the first place.
I agree with Eddie, that regardless of who gets elected as President, Gates should be asked to stay on as Sec Def, or maybe switched to State, since he seems to understand the areas where State is deficient in our Sys Admin functions.
August 30th, 2008 at 8:30 pm
Gates-Petraeus 2012 ?
August 30th, 2008 at 8:33 pm
I think he is going to bail out after Bush’s term, as he said he would do.
In a parliamentary system, maybe he could have become PM. In our system, he could never get nominated or elected.
August 30th, 2008 at 10:09 pm
I hope he stays on, whether it’s McCain or Obama who wins. He would be an asset to either man.
American political discourse truly is stupid, as we have seen this year (e.g. the Britney-Paris ads, the horse-race coverage in the primary.) Then there is the type of negative campaigning we saw in South Carolina in 2000, or the ridiculous rumors about Obama being a Muslim, being born overseas, etc. Why would an honest, intelligent person want to put their family through that when style and charisma are rewarded over substance anyway?
September 2nd, 2008 at 9:14 pm
Smart guy. Maybe he can run with James Baker as VP.
Gates would have the Colin Powell problem. As soon as he declared his candidacy he would have to start publicly responding to questions and taking positions on all kinds of issues. I can imagine him being hounded by conservative bloggers about the Iraq Study Group report, for example. Lex is correct that he couldn’t be nominated or elected, and I think that’s probably not a bad thing.
September 3rd, 2008 at 1:17 pm
[…] Zenpundit wishes Robert Gates were running for president. Call it the theorist-technocrat coalition candidate (it might pull a whole tenth of a percentage point). Naturally such a wish is evocative of the folks of an earlier era who wondered why it was that Dean Acheson or Arthur Schlesinger weren’t standing for election. Now as then it’s a silly wish, as it just doesn’t work. By the weight of my comparison though, I think you can tell I wouldn’t mind if it did for Gates. addthis_url = ‘http%3A%2F%2Fasecondhandconjecture.com%2Findex.php%2F2008%2F09%2F03%2Fgates-for-president%2F’; addthis_title = ‘Gates+for+President%3F’; addthis_pub = ”; Sphere: Related Content […]