So You Think You Can Run a Country

Back in the day, presidents were voted into office based on their experience, credentials, and their potential to improve America. People chose their president because they truly believed in their leader. Fast forward to 1960, when the first televised presidential debate occurred between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon. Who won? JFK, for his looks and charismatic appeal to all of America. Now fast forward again to the 2008 election, when John McCain chooses Alaska governor Sarah Palin as his vice president. Of the hundreds of people McCain could have chosen, he selects one of the most unqualified Republicans to help him fix a recession, create new jobs, stop our country’s dependence on oil, fight a war, and then some. Slowly, American politics is becoming a form of entertainment, and it’s not stopping; Donald Trump is now mulling for a presidential bid to run against Barack Obama in the 2012 elections.
 

If you’re a celebrity, stick to being a celebrity. And if you’re a president, stick to being a president. There is no reason for one to cross over into the other’s path. A president or vice president’s main role is not to give entertaining speeches to get the public to like him or her. While it certainly helps, it’s not what will improve our country, The 2008 election was almost like a comedy hour. Americans anxiously awaited Sarah Palin’s responses in her debate, and what other ridiculous analogies she would come up with besides comparing a hockey mom to pit bull. These factors should not be why the vice presidential debate between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden was the highest viewed debate of its kind in history.
 
If Donald Trump ends up as Obama’s opponent in the 2012 election, it will just be more entertainment for Americans. Donald Trump is nowhere near qualified to run this nation. He is a very successful businessman, but the line stops there. America is not a business and cannot be run like one, as Trump most likely would. Politics is completely different than business, which is completely different from entertainment for an hour. Presidential elections should not be a popularity contest, where America picks the future leader based on a comical speech or good looks. We must remember that whoever we elect not only affects the future for the next for years, but has potential to affect generations of Americans. And, do we really want Donald Trump walking in on his first day of office saying “You’re fired!” to Obama?