Op-Ed: America, What Do You Want From Your Next President?

The next President of the United States is not going to be like any of the others. Can you handle that, and will you respect it in four years?

I registered as a Democrat when I was 18 years old. As I've gotten older, my political views have changed beyond the party lines. I've voted for the guy who I thought was going to take us in the right direction, and not the party or the party representative. But this year has put me at a cross roads in some sort. On one hand we have McCain. I don't think he'll be exactly "more of the same" as the Obama campaign pushes b/c McCain, frankly, isn't well-liked in Congress by anyone other than Biden and Clinton. How ironic! If he wins, it's not the Republican Party winning. There's no true connection as much as the Republican party wants to show that it is. There isn't a whole lot of talk about keeping our country going in the right direction from the Republican Party because, frankly, it wasn't and it hasn't been. When Anne Coulter and Rush Limbaugh have their doubts about McCain, well... Obama is a charmer and could be the new injection to the system that our country needs. Yes, he's arrogant. Yes, he has grand visions. But I believe that he's smart enough to surround himself with the right people and get our country's perception going in the right direction. He's a Democrat but he hasn't been a major force in the Party for long enough to be a true Democrat. Maybe in spirit, but not in reality. I see him as all in for his ideals and his visions which can be dangerous. I just happen to want the same thing. My fear is that he'll let himself get to himself and in two years he's going to make some bonehead decision that alienates people on both sides of the congress. I never thought I'd like anything about Dubya. Honestly. He was not the face of America before 9/11. And during 9/11 I think he handled the crisis like an ordinary human being, except we don't expect our president to be an ordinary human being. In 2004 I was ready for him to go, but Kerry wasn't the answer. Yet I've been impressed with some of the decisions as of late, especially signing the new G.I. Bill into law. That spoke to me deeply and went beyond "we support our troops" to "we support them and here's what we're going to do about it". Even some of his speeches are a little less jacked up. He learned from the Katrina debacle and got ready to visit New Orleans before anything happened. And I think he has his heart in the right direction but just listened to the wrong people for 7 years (Rumsfeld, Rove, Cheney, etc.). So for me this isn't down to the party line and party reps. Neither one really represents left, right, conservative, or liberal as their poster boy. I pose this question to myself and to others on here: what do you want from your next President? And in four years would you be willing to read that checklist and give an objective, non-partisan thumbs up or thumbs down to that President's accomplishments? Start here