Originally, when I voted for you, I believed (as I still do) in the necessity to return to our deeper values as a nation and I saw the opportunity to shake things up so that they had more of a possibility of creating 'change that we can believe in.' And you clearly and powerfully delivered the possibility for that becoming a reality.
And, of course, I do admire your great intelligence along with your commitment to higher values.
And I admire you for, in a sense, doing your best as David trying to slay Goliath. I admire you for being able to do as well as you did and for coping your best with the extra challenge it was to go into the biggest CEO job in the world without having had the experience or knowledge necessary to be that CEO. I can imagine the courage (and the discouragement) involved in trying your best but without the knowledge to do the job - it's kind of like trying to be the captain of a ship or a pilot of a plane, with good intentions but without practical experience.
I admire your skills of being attractive and inspiring enough to gather strong supporters to help you with the job. This is certainly something a CEO must do.
I admire you for your being idealistic and romantic, for without dreamers with a strong moral compass we languish as a people. Thank you for reigniting that dream.
I admire you for just plainly being a good man, with high values, who stands strongly for those values, even in the midst of the uncertainty of what to do for the nation.
And, I think, you made some good decisions that made a critical difference, such as standing for the stimulus and for stopping what could have been worse.
I recall my own idealism as I entered business and then owned a business, sharing 20% of all profits with the other "causers". I was successful through persistence and continual learning and correction, but at first, without the experience and despite having a great schooling, I made many naive mistakes, applying my relatively high intelligence ineptly because I did not have the knowledge.
As I read Confidence Men, by Ron Susskind, I felt a great deal of empathy for your dilemma and struggle. He, too, admires your many great qualities. And the courage to go for the job was great, though his final description of you as a "brilliant amateur", I agree, is apt.
And I think, as Chris Christie put it for himself: "I'm not ready to be President", taking a courageous stand for doing what is right and appropriate for his current skills and knowledge. I quote him further:
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"You have got to believe in your heart that you're personally ready to be president, and I'm not there," Christie said. He explained further:
"I think every year you have as a governor in an executive position in a big state like New Jersey would make you better prepared to be president. And after one year as governor, I am not arrogant enough to believe that after one year as governor of New Jersey and seven years as the United States attorney that I'm ready to be president of the United States, so I'm not going to run."
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And that was the tough part for you especially as you felt so strongly and so passionately for the "higher causes". And so many people rushed to support you, ignoring the key element of your not being qualified to do the job. It turned out to be premature for you, but you still stepped boldly forth, with a great and skillful campaign and a grand, hopeful message - stepping over Hilary Clinton's valid assertion that you "did not have the experience", igniting the passions of the young people and even business leaders, and having them believe in your great leadership qualities.
I believe you needed some more seasoning and experience, though I understand how hard it is to wait. You managed a community organization well, building it to a staff of 11 in 3 years - but there is no way even the most intelligent person could shift competently to a staff of 100's and an immense number of employees plus legislators over which no one could have true power.
It seems that many great men, because they are so courageous and take on challenges that are sometimes too big, have had massive failures - but the key was that they did not see those as permanent defeats but only learning opportunities - indications that they did not yet know enough and were not yet wise enough.
It would have been incredibly great for you to gain more experience as a U.S. Senator, perhaps at least two terms. Two plus years before you started to campaign for President was not enough for even the most brilliant to really learn enough.
So you had to do "on the job training", with an impossible learning curve - it is always the case that it takes time to develop 'genius' or even good competence. I'm sure you have seen the studies that show that so-called 'natural' geniuses had one commonality - they had practiced and played for more than 10,000 hours. Indeed, as the common quote about being real says, 'gravity rules, and cannot be defied without consequences.'
I don't know if a President could ever step down to being a Senator again. Probably not, I guess.
But I hope and pray that you will continue your journey to attain the highest values and benefits for the US and for the world, as I want to see and admire your applying your great intelligence, mental power, and passion to bettering this world. You've had some great training that will make a huge difference now in what you can do.
Go for it! You are our leader for "hope and change", even after being President. Please don't stop!
Again, thank you for a great try and for your inspiration!
The Rational NonPolitician
