The Perfect POTUS!

Well, folks, it's that time of year. No, it is not baseball season. It is not Super Bowl season. It is time when people who breathe the same air as we do decide that they want to run for the highest office in the world. No, it is not as chairman of Microsoft. It is time for some people to declare their candidacy for President of the entire United States.

For the sake of this article, I don't want to look at the people who are trying to get the job. We don't really know too much about them at this moment in time. We do know something about a few of them, but not enough in order to make a fair judgment about each them.

Let's begin!

The first guy who is on my list is President George W. Bush (43). While I may not agree with some of the things he believed in, there were other things I liked about him. One was the fact that he had to deal with the aftereffects of the 9/11 attacks on September 11, 2001. That was not easy for anyone. He had to absorb the deaths and injuries. Then he had to figure out a plan of attack. During his term, he also had to endure many attacks upon his reputation. All of those attacks were highly unfair because they called his intelligence into question.

Once we went to war in the Middle East, he did something else which I supported. He met the caskets of every deceased soldier who returned from the war. This truly showed his compassion to not only the soldiers who died, but it also showed compassion to the families who mourned them. He was an awesome POTUS.

And he continues to be an inspiration to this very day. At the time of this writing—January 18, 2019—I read an article where he delivered food to a family who was suffering from the Trump government shutdown. Mr. Bush did not have to do it, but he felt it within himself to do something. That alone tells you about the awesome character that he possesses.

Along the same line is his dad and predecessor to the office, George H. W. Bush (41). He was a kind and compassionate person. He, like his son, was also a military man. He was a great role model, not just to his son, but also to the rest of the nation—including me. If you wanted to know where his son gained all of his great characteristics, just look at his dad.

How can one put such a list together and not mention Ronald W. Reagan (40)? While he was not a perfect POTUS, he came awfully close. He was a true defender of our country. On his inauguration day January 20, 1981, 52 Americans who were held hostage in Iran for 444 consecutive days were released the moment he placed his hand on the Bible in order to be sworn into office. That will give you a great idea of how scared our enemies were of him. He even led the country through a crisis known as the Challenger disaster when a space shuttle that was carrying seven astronauts, including a school teacher, exploded a mere 73 seconds after launch. His spiritual words gave great comfort during that dark period.

His motto was "Peace through strength." He kept our military extremely strong. Militarily, we were ready for anything. Fortunately, nothing happened here on our shores. We did have some isolated incidents on foreign territory, but nothing like or similar to the 9/11 attacks.

It is amazing to me that Reagan was a strict Conservative like his earlier predecessor and another favorite President of mine, John F Kennedy (35). Kennedy, unlike most, if not all of the other Presidents of the Democrat Party, was a Conservative; whereas, the others in the same party were (and still are) Liberals. This is very important because in the three shorts years of his tenure, he set the most admirable goals of this and many years to come. Such goals included placing a man on the moon before the end of the decade that he never saw. He also strongly encouraged Americans to stop being selfish and to do for others instead:

"Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country."

No truer words were ever said.

During my lifetime, there were no other memorable Presidents. I was born in 1956. I am sure that there were nice things to say about Truman and Eisenhower, but I was just too young to know. However, during my life span, there were other Presidents that I'd rather forget. I can think of nothing positive to say about Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Richard Nixon, or Lyndon Johnson. At this point in time, I can't even think of anything positive about the current White House occupant, Donald Trump. I am sure that he is a nice guy, though. Yes, that is quite sad.

When I refer to the perfect POTUS, I am not saying that all of the aforementioned men were entirely flawless. Yes, they made SOME mistakes. They saw their mistakes and immediately corrected them. They sought out to do the best job that they could do. Others did not. They tried to pass their blame to others. My heroes owned up to their mistakes.

In closing, I hope that we will one day see the perfect POTUS. Until then, we can only hope that someone will rise and become the best of the best that we could possibly vote for.