I don't want to drink a beer with the president

There are a couple of things that are truly frustrating me about the current presidential race.  And they aren't what I expected:

It's not the infighting in both parties and potential Democratic division. It's not the below-the-belt attacks and the business-as-usual approach in Washington. It's not even the current campaign dialogue, often through surrogates, steeped in what appears to be an incredibly poorly nuanced understanding of human identities. That type of rhetoric I'm fairly used to on a number of different levels. 

Indeed, most minorities have come to expect slights against them cloaked in euphemism during a presidential campaign; this denigration, fear-mongering and the consistent emphasis on the language of division all made in polite policy points was once reserved as the spearhead for "the post 9/11 terrorist threat."  Now, it simply drives a wedge between Americans - this year if you aren't straight, white, wealthy, male citizen - you're all a wedge issue!  As much as I dislike the way the Washington machinery moves - this isn't my main gripe either!

This year I can't even complain, as I usually do, that people are disengaged, apathetic and totally oblivious to the political climate and all that is at stake in November.  This time around it seems that in every strata of society most people have put their hearts - and sometimes their minds - on their own high-priority issues and at least started to consider which candidate has their best interest at heart.

Admittedly, I am a stickler when making decisions on people to work with or for me. When I picked my doctor and dentist after having the benefit of some of the best doctors and dentists in the world through the NBA, I wanted to make sure that I had the person with the most relevant and up to date skills and knowledge. I polled my friends, browsed through those pompous inserts in airplane magazines touting "the 10 best medical practitioners" in every field, and challenged everyone I knew in the medical or dental fields to tell me who was the best and most brilliant. In my list of criteria - and way down the list - way below a brilliant mind, I wanted someone who was personable, open and, as my 84 year old Aunty likes to say "with it."

In medicine and dentistry, there seem to be plenty of people who fit every criteria, but when choosing someone to operate on my family or myself I'd still take the rudest, most well-educated doctor over someone "neighbourly."

In other words, I desire the guidance and assistance in an individual and countrywide sense from the most talented, most up-to-date, well-educated people available. When it comes to trusting someone to make decisions that might hold my quality of life, business success, personal happiness or general well-being in the balance, I'll just say it: I want the best of the best if they are available. I want the ELITE in every field if I can afford it. And when I don't have to pay, just scribble a pencil circle, poke through a piece of paper or tap a screen to choose the most powerful human on the planet. I want the elite there too.

So here is crux of my first issue: It seems to me when crisis hits we all want the best help, advice and expertise. Whether personal or collective, when tragedy strikes, when the risks to ourselves and our countries are at their height we demand the elite. We want elite squads fighting for us in the "war on terror," elite accountants trying to clarify the international mortgage and credit crisis, and, perhaps wishfully for the pittance they are paid, we want elite teachers educating our children, especially in our oft deprived urban centres - the list goes on and on.  We want the best.

Still, people seem a little confused in what they are looking for in a president. A campaign to pick the leader of the free world should not be based on who you'd like to have as a neighbour, or who seems 'nicer' or more 'down to earth.'  I don't want the guy-next-door for a president, or some guy who'd get the most friends on MySpace - that's how we ended up with Tila Tequila on television. 

I don't want some guy who I can imagine would come over to my place for game night, to have some beers or to watch American Idol. I don't want someone who is so "down-to-earth" that he thinks giving up golf is a sacrifice worth talking about.

In fact, I want some guy who thinks a TV show that inspires more people to vote than a general election and makes them pay for the privilege is a little cultish, maybe even Orwellian. 

I actually do want someone who might like to play scrabble; but I want him to know he doesn't have time for that until all Americans get health care, New Orleans gets the help it still needs and a dozen or so other massive social problems are solved. I want someone so smart - so elite - that I'd only offer to play scrabble with him because I know he doesn't have the time to take me up on my offer- because I know if he did, he'd kick my arse.

I don't want the classical guy-next-door/Marlboro man 'running' this country (anymore).  We tried it, we felt comfortable that he could ride a horse, shoot a gun, eat BBQ, golf with the best of them and not be a Muslim. And secretly a good percentage of us (yes, including me) all felt really good because we all just knew we were smarter than the most powerful man in the world.

Sadly, this approach has bitten us all deep in the seat of our trousers.

That guy and that type of guy is always going to be susceptible to the manipulative machinations of power hungry subordinates, politically savvy special interest groups and big business. That guy is always going to lean a little too hard on old pals, even older business connections and sycophants to advise him when he doesn't like what he hears.

When the elite scientists warn him about global warming, when the elite military give him guidance on a potential conflicts and when elite educators tell him of the state of our children's schools, he will always have a soothing Jimmy Cricket in his ear to tell him he is right(eous)... and he should take another holiday.

I want an elite person in the White House (for a change). I want someone who can communicate well, and not just with other Americans; someone who is incredibly smart, the cream of that crop, and I will add my Aunty's criteria to my list as well, I want him to be "with it." The next president should be "with it;" he should know the price of petrol, even if the secret service won't let him pump it; and, damn it, the person with his finger on that button should know what "the google" is and how to use it.

Well, that's enough for one blog, I haven't even had room to add my second election frustration, that'll wait for another time...