Haha, good point.

George Washington is my hero.

When I was a kid, I built a tree fort and kids had to pay a quarter to join my "club" to hang out. Weekly dues were a bottle of coke or a bag of chips and on Saturday, we'd all get together and have our "Big Secret Meetings"  -  I'd pull out all of the contributions, licorice, chips, candies, divide them up and we all had a talk about who we were going to let join or whatever next week.

Since I was the meanest kid on Blake Street, some even paid me protection money to keep them safe from bullies. Remind you of anything?  

 Nice one Paige.

there are no great leaders, at least as it applies to presidents. 
ambition and ego are prereqs to get into the game, at any time.

Given that, is it any wonder Sarah Palin resigned her office?

Being a politician sucks these days, unless you really want it... in which case I'd rather you didn't run.

Such is the paradox of today's democracy.

The prestige, power, ego, fame, you name it ...they want it.  And that is why it has been dominated by males. 

It definitely is a popularity contest corrupted by the very nature of the goal of getting elected... the inherent check on this corruption, however, is the term limit.  Hopefully those that are most insincere are called out by the people they represent.  Absolutely imperfect, but I think the system championed and designed by men like Madison and Jefferson, is astonishing for its success.  Do you have any suggestions for how to improve upon the caliber of individual seeking office?

A point to ponder indeed

Exactly.

@Accolade - successful helicopter wolf hunters only

you notice how many people answered Hitler paige?

Nice post.

it's a very good question. And maybe we should be asking who do we need to lead us vs. who wants to lead us...

Likeabilty or popularity most certainly play a huge role in getting elected.  Look at the once actors turned politicians for great examples of that.

I would disagree with the idea that Jefferson and Washington did not want the office. Especially with regards to Jefferson.

i think the illuminati is behind this. lara croft needs to be our leader. or bill gates. maybe we need a king and queen. ok. how about queen rania from jordan? we could import her and she could straighten everything out... *yes, i hit the cough syrup hard today.*

This was good, Paige. I enjoyed reading it. Food for thought.

@Leonidas - You took the words right out of my mouth.

I'm afraid we'll never see a leader like Washington ever again...  The career politicians are going to be the undoing of us.

Government, by it's nature, necessitates ambition and dishonesty. That's nothing new.

Democracy isn't the best form of government, it's just better than any realistic alternative.

The best form of government I can think of would be a philosopher-king or "benevolent dictator". You'd have all the power in the world focused in the hands of a person who was fundamentally concerned with questions of justice and would never abuse their authority. There would be no time wasted in discussion or debate, so the full force of the State's power would never waver or suffer from crippling doubt. It sounds perfect until you realize that such a person has never existed.

Marcus Aurelius was probably the closest thing, and he never seemed to enjoy being emperor very much, that's for sure. Reading his journal is like listening to a man whistle in a graveyard; you get the impression he was a man so weary from what he saw as a divine duty that he longed for death with all the passion he denied to the rest of his life.

Good observations.

i have no idea. i know i would never want that job. 

@Confessions_of_a_Liberal - Why?  Everything I know about him is that he was not particularly well suited to public life.  He was a genius writer, and was suitably commissioned to write the Declaration of Independence... and was proud of his Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom... but he was not a good politician.  His was a role of responsibility more than desire.  I could be wrong, but that's why I'm asking.

Do you think Americans want some dishonesty in their elected officials, at least, like the president?  Sometimes I get the sense that they want someone who is willing to act ruthlessly to get something done.  The boy scouts, and I'm thinking of Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich, as noble as they are, don't seem to get the respect they need to be the most effective politicians.

@Accolade - I think the boy scouts get picked off by the machine that protects the majority of politicians. They do not want such moral constancy around them, it makes them all look bad in comparison. So the moral they get labeled as "nuts"  even though the two examples you gave really are very main stream, so far as their respective parties are concerned.

The people have been convinced that "they all do it". So they should not hold their politicians to a higher standard than all the rest of them. But I do not think the majority like that situation. The majority of politicians on the other hand love it that way.

Came by rec...soo very true. It sure not helpin' us out this contest.