I avoided commenting on the USA Today clickbait article on the perfect president but I see that James Joyner took the bait. He remarks:
Far and away the most likely winner of the 2024 election will be an almost-82-year-old man from the Mid-Atlantic states with no business or military background but plenty of experience in the Senate and White House. This, despite polling saying 6 in 10 don’t want either him or the other guy to run.
Qualities among which people chose included age, gender, government, business and military experience, willingness to compromise, home state, and so on.
IMO a more useful approach would include something like what’s called the MoSCoW standard:
Must have
Should have
Could have
Will not have
So, for example, I think that candidates younger than 50 or older than 70 are “could haves” but not “should haves” or “must haves”. I think that executive government and business experience are “must haves” while military experience is a “could have”. A woman as president is a “could have” but neither a “should have” nor a “must have”. I think that being from a “purple state” is a “should have” but practically impossible given the present state of politics. Politicians from states solidly red or blue have very damaging reflexes.
I genuinely wish that more people actually read, understood, and appreciated the constitutional role of president (commander-in-chief of the military, chief executive of the federal government, etc.).
One a slightly divergent subject I think that anyone for whom either government or business experience is a “will not have” is not old enough to vote.
That’s probably a better set of metrics, but for me, the ability to competently run the Executive branch and foreign policy principles trump almost every other factor.
Please dear god. No more career Senators.
Is it necessary to point out that elections have no effect on foreign policy. LtC Vindman testified in Congress that the President has no authority to make foreign policy. The Army tried to promote him to Brigadier, but Trump intervened. Gen. Milley illegally inserted himself into the nuclear chain of command, and conducted his own foreign policy with the Chinese.
Elections also rarely have any effect on domestic policy, and then only if the Democrats get power. They have no effect if Republicans are elected to power. When they controlled the Presidency and both Houses of Congress, they couldn’t even cancel the ban of 100W incandescent light bulbs. There is no New Deal or Great Society program that Republicans oppose. A decade from now, the Republicans will be supportive of CRT and DEI and open borders and racial quotas.
Unless Biden has a complete mental breakdown in public or dies, he is the likely Democrat nominee for 2024. DeSantis appears to be the front runner for the Republican nominee, but I wouldn’t count Trump out. I wish he and Biden would check into the Hotel California.
Of course, by 2024 there might be a Russian army enjoying the shore breeze in Cannes.