When I first posted this just over 10 years ago, little did I know it would become true! Kind of like the movie 'Idiocracy' starting out as a comedy and morphing into a documentary over time.

Just out of curiosity I looked at some clips of the Obama/Romney debates from 2012 that inspired this quote. Compared to the Trump/Biden debates in 2020 they came off as mature, responsible, and respectful statesmen, even though nothing of substance was uttered by either of them, but that is not the point of Presidential debates. Political debates are really a sales pitch. Much has changed in political discourse since then, even in that short amount of time gone by. Trump or Biden could not even speak in complete sentences and were unwatchable in 2020.

One saving grace to help alleviate our fear is that a President doesn't have near the power or influence we are led to believe they do. They are mainly a cheerleader for their political party who has the bully pulpit for four years. I remember 'Rich Guy' telling me a couple of interesting ideas about politicians from his deep experience that have seemed to hold up. One is the best and the brightest seldom go into politics as a career. There is much more creativity, energy, and money to be made outside of the DC Beltway. Two is if you are looking to invest in a company, don't pay as much attention to the CEO as you do the CFO, the person pulling the financial strings behind the face of the company. And the economy is always a red herring, as it is a lagging indicator, and the President has very little control over it anyway. The Founding Fathers designed a pretty slick system that has held up well till now. Not sure if it can continue to hold up though. We may have outgrown its practical application as the general electorate gets dumber. If one has any doubt about that, just spend some time perusing the political posting on Facebook. It can be scary, but edifying.