"Ready from Day One" is it really all that tough to be president?

[NightWatcher]

Hillary is using the slogan of "Ready From Day One (to be president)". I am not a big fan of hers, but the slogan is good.

It did get me thinking, however, if it really is all that hard to be president. Gwb (coke monkey on xanax) hit the ground running and began fouling things up horribly from day one. He was leading us into war in less than a year after he took the reigns of government. He appeared to be ready.

This also got me thinking of another campaign meme of "change".

Do we want change or improvement? I want improvement and not just a change. I realize (and hope) that almost anyone who takes over from Der Chimperor will be a change, but what I want is an improvement.

(for the record, I was a Dennis supporter, but "electability" has crept into my reality and I am test driving a few other democrats right now before my state's primary. Come on candidates, Woo me.

[The_Casual_Observer]

1. If jr had been "ready from day one" 9/11 wouldn't have happened.

[NightWatcher]

3. some believe that was his plan

[The_Casual_Observer]

7. I'm not showing him that much respect.

[begin_within]

2. It's probably the toughest job in the world, because

if a problem is easy to solve, someone else solves it and it never makes it to the Prez. The things that nobody else can solve go to the Prez.

[Occam Bandage]

4. Yes. GWB is a great example. He's a guy who thought,

"man, how hard could this be? Just stick to my principles and everything will be great." His advisors were stunned by how incurious, self-assured, and uninterested in information he was.

He then proceeded to fuck up everything in sight for two terms, without so much as a second thought as to what he was doing. So yeah, self-assured inexperience can be a bad thing.

[riqster]

5. Bush did not hit the ground running

...he was obviously incompetent and his ratings were terrible until 9/11.

WJC took a while to get his feet under him too. As did Reagan and Carter.

Contrast the 'outsiders' with the insiders who, love 'em or loathe 'em, knew the landscape and did get going right away: LBJ, Nixon, GHWB, Kennedy. It is a big help to have experience in a particular context.

[Benhurst]

6. Ronald Reagan managed to complete his term while increasingly

under the throes of Alzheimer's. By his last day in office, he would have been unable to perform the duties of a check-out clerk at Wal-mart.

So much for the toughest job in the world.

[harun]

11. I think it is tough in terms of propaganda control and media

relations, it certainly isn't technically tough like a real CEO/CFO job. You just hire people to do the technical work or in the case of the Repukes, hire people to make that stuff up.

[terisan]

8. Bush spent a few months claiming Clintons stole furniture and trashed AF1

It was front page in newspapers. He joked with press, pranced and danced. Cheney was busy from day one putting together his secret energy group policies.

[terisan]

9. and Bush spent lots of time giving nicknames to Congresspeople. nt

[featherman]

10. She does know what she is talking about 'cause she and Bill

were certainly NOT ready from Day One in 1993 and let the whole MSM/GOP "scandal a day" get away from them: filegate, travelgate, gays in military, etc.

[terisan]

12. True. Carter wasn't ready either. We used to joke that he took the B team to DC be-

a lot of his Georgia aides wern't prepared for DC politics.

[hfojvt]

13. I think it begs the question

Ready to do what? Continue a corpratist agenda?

The slogan implies that all of the Democratic candidates want to do the same thing, but only Hillary is going to be ready from day one. I am against her because her record shows a consistent lack of willingness to promote a progressive agenda.