The Most Important Election, EVER

So I was listening, in and out, to the Republican Convention last night. I caught most of Rudy’s speech and most of Sarah Palin’s. I love how every election is the most important, I suppose it is because it always determines the future, at least to a certain extent. I thought Palin did a good job and that following Rudy made her look like an even better speaker. I seriously thought Rudy was supposed to be eloquent and what-not but he really seemed to me to be stumbling through the majority of his speech. I did like the contrast that was brought up regarding executive experience vs. legislative experience. Legislators don’t have to make any real decisions, they can just be Present, and not vote yea or nay. Executives can’t do that their decision is yea or nay, no present votes allowed. It accounts for about 3% of all the votes he cast as a state legislator, so not too many but… I think present is a stupid vote; it shouldn’t even be an option. Either vote yes, no, or not at all. I also think it illustrates the difference between being a leader and a law-maker. I think Palin did a very good job with her speech, I think she is a nice contrast to McCain, the only area where I think she could really use some help is in the experience department, but what other options are there?
I’m not sure if I am going to listen to McCain’s speech tonight. While I think the conventions could serve a purpose, they tend to be somewhat of a pandering event for either party just to sell themselves to their current constituents. I would like both parties to actually make a plan, and present it to the people. Instead of just saying you will increase jobs, reduce taxes, reduce spending, etc. I would like to know how they plan to do all these things. I am really turned off by contradictory statements like lowering taxes for working class while raising wages and balancing the budget. The money has to come from somewhere, if they reduce personal income taxes then they will have to increase business profit taxes, or they can take out a loan (unbalanced budget). I am a little tired of Obama’s statement that he is going to “reign in government spending” how exactly does he plan to do that? Does he see areas where there is excess? Why not just say he is going to cut funding for XYZ project? Or if it is the intent remove pork and barrel spending, and all these projects that can’t pass without being attached to a more important bill? Of course politicians are famous for their ability to add on to bills (irrespective of parties) traditionally the democrats have a greater propensity to inflate bills, at least in the cost department.
I would like to change the process for presidential elections. I think it would be nice if we set up job qualifications to apply to be president. Like maybe some sort of quantifiable economic understanding, it would also be nice if they really understood the constitution (one reason I really like Ron Paul), I hate to say it but military experience of some sort is almost essential (aren’t they applying to be commander in chief?). We could have them take a series of personality tests that can then be published to the masses, evaluate their ethical behavior, personal conviction, ability to relate with others, even sense of humor. Of course the biggest challenge in doing this would to be to maintain an unbiased perspective. Drug testing isn’t a bad idea either; this is pretty cut and dry as far as I am concerned. It makes me cringe to think that here Americans are left to choose between two candidates that in many ways aren’t really qualified for the position; of course that is my opinion so… I think the business world understands what it means to hire people; all those tests and interviews actually are there for a reason. Attrition is very expensive, at the Presidential level it can’t even be put into numbers the cost. I guess my choice has just come down to who is the most qualified, or the closest to being qualified.