Presidential Qualifications

If President-Elect Obama does well in office, what does that say about the qualifications to be president?

During the campaign, one of the resounding issues was that of qualifications.  Sen. McCain was attempting to paint then Sen. Obama as someone that hadn’t lead much of anything, let alone a country.  When he made the choice of Gov. Sarah Palin to be his VP running mate, many then turned the discussion to ask whether she was qualified to run the government should something happen to Sen. McCain.

So, thinking through this, now’s a great opportunity to see, and perhaps settle the question.  If President-Elect Obama can do a decent job as President (especially with all that’s stacked up against him), then I figure that Gov. Palin could be ok, and that perhaps the media has set too high a bar for qualifications for President.

How do I get this?  Because the resume of President-Elect Obama is not what the media demanded of Gov. Palin—he has a skinnier one when it comes to executive leadership than she.

But I also don’t buy into the concept that the President has to be this super intelligent guy who knows everything about everything.  It’s not that I don’t want a smart President, but the man picks a whole group of people under him, and it’s those people’s job to be the ones that know a lot about their field of expertise.

So, I would put forth that the choices of the men and women that a President chooses to surround himself with, the President’s organization abilities and decision making abilities that really  matter, rather than some test about the intelligence quotient of the man.