Thursday, January 10, 2008

Back on the Soap Box

It's been awhile since my last "soap box" post / rant. I actually intend to post this on another site, but thought I would post it here instead. The original question to where I wrote this was something along the lines of: If Hillary Clinton could keep the world safe and prosp...blah blah blah. Here is my response.
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Unfortunately, I think that not only must America answer the question of “Should Mrs. Clinton be the next president" but rather, “Should Mrs. Clinton be the first woman president." I feel there is more “up for grabs “than one presidency. Let me quantify my statement.

When our current president Bush leaves office, no matter if history portrays him has a great or horrible president, he will just be another WASP in the long line of presidential tradition (I use the term loosely). When stacked up next to all who have come before him, not much will truly stand out. We've had bad and good presidents before, but they will all be lumped together in our history text books under different chapters.

Now, to be the first WOMAN president is truly, a noteworthy honor. The world and history has shown us that woman can lead as good (and sometimes better) than any man. However, to be the first comes with allot of added, perhaps unnecessary, pressure. IF, Hillary is elected president and performs well, then we will see more women running for higher offices. This would also open the door for other minorities who have never held this office. But, the reverse would also be true. If, Hillary is a horrible / bad / ineffective president it could place a stigma on all future "would be Women or Minority" presidents. In short, to be the first you have to be stellar if you want to ensure that you will not be the last for a long time to come.

To put this into business perspective, let’s assume that two candidates are trying to become a CEO for a huge fortune 500 company. The first candidate is extremely young by CEO terms, while the other candidate fits the middle-aged look for most top end CEO’s currently on the market. If the younger CEO is selected and performs poorly, then the board may not be as willing to take a risk on an “out of the norm” CEO in the future. However, if the younger CEO comes in , delivers and does an absolute stellar job, it could change not only what that board looks for in a future CEO but could impact how other boards determine and select CEOs. By contrast, if the “normal” candidate is selected for CEO, it doesn’t really matter if he does good or bad. The next CEO will probably be another candidate that fits into that “normal” niche.

With that being said, my question is not "Should Hillary be the next president?" but "Should she be the first woman president, one that will usher in a new age in politics and open the political doors to Men and Women of all races and religions." That’s the question we have to answer.

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Of course, I would sooner burn my voter card than vote for HS. But, I thought this would be an interesting way of looking at the currently election. Especially for allot of women voters how are voting for her, because she is a women. Be careful what you wish for.

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