What should be first on the agenda of the winner in November?

Jobs.

Seppuku

Fire all of the old cronies and put in new cronies.

Probably a vacation to unwind from the stress of the election and to prepare for the battle ahead.

Kill all the lobbyists.

no president should take a vacation (other than the odd long weekend) until they win a second term, up until that point it's a 4 year job, in those 4 years, they have folks to look after their daily needs (cooking, cleaning etc.) they should concentrate fully on the job of running the country, if they win a second term, take some time off before the next term starts, then buckle down for another 4 years, eight years out of your life, doing the most important job in the country is not that big a deal, lots of time for vacations when your done

Since I'm hoping for that second term, we agree he could take one.

Right, it's a piece of cake. No sweat.

Even on a vacation, of sorts, the President never has the luxury of leaving all the work behind, but he is entitled to a little R & R.

And, if a new guy will be taking on the job, he'll need a break after the election to process what he's gotten himself into.

Killing Presidents through high blood pressure is one way to prevent those second terms....

i never meant to imply the job was not a big deal, i meant missing vacations for 4 years to do the job should be no big deal

so the line should read

But DrewDad's point stands, which is that taking vacations can make someone more effective overall, rather than less.

-signed, married to a guy who works all the damn time and could really, really benefit from a vacation

Sounds like you are a manager at Foxconn.

After getting rid of obungacare I assume is what you mean, that one is sort of obvious...

First thing I'd do after that, is issue an executive order banning the use of Microsoft yuppieware throughout the US govt.

Someone should fix the filibuster problem. The last thing our congress needs is yet another mechanism for accomplishing nothing.

Jespah…thanks. Jobs are important. I was being a wise-ass…wondering why anyone would want the job considering the almost insurmountable problems all over the place.

Djjd…we use to call it hari kari…but your suggestion does make sense.

DrewDad…at the end of the day…you’d still just have cronies.

Firefly…vacations make sense…although I see what the responders to your suggestion mean.

Green Witch…ahhh, I don’t get into all that “killing” talk. But I agree that “lobbyists ” seem a reasonable place to start.

Sozobe…hope the hubby gets the message. Does he read your comments?

Engineer…I won’t even watch FOX. FOX news is to news what White Castle hamburgers are to haute cuisine.

Gunga…as far as Obamacare is concerned, all I want done is to see it expanded…not gotten rid of.

Thanks everyone for stopping by. I was kinda working with my tongue planted deeply in my cheek here. Good to see youse all.

Foxconn is the sweat shop in China that manufactures for Apple, Dell, etc. They employee just shy of 500,000 people, work them 10-16 hours per day (in 2010 a young man died after a 34 hour shift), refuse to pay them overtime, etc. My post was in response to the no vacation for Presidents post.

Whew...thanks for explaining that.

I thought I had gotten too subtle in my initial remarks...but obviously the only problem is that I don't pay enough attention when reading the responses.

Now that you have explained, though, and in light of the new perspective...good post. I suspect we are on the same page. (See my remark to Sozobe)

AND...my remarks about FOX news stand!

There. I fixed it.

Edit: And fixed it again to address a formatting error with my BOLD tags.

The filibuster can't be fixed by a president. The constitution gives the two houses of the legislature the power to make their own rules of order, and that is sensible. It could only be changed by constitutional amendment, which is also something a president can't do. Even were a constitutional amendment passed, Congress has long showed an amazing talent for either bypassing constitutional authority, or just ignoring it altogether. Here's a marvelous example: In September, 1789, the First Congress sent twelve proposed amendments to the states. The third through the twelfth proposed amendments were ratified and became the first ten amendments, what we call the bill of rights. The other two were not ratified then, and the first one likely never will be, which is sensible (it would call for a Representative for every 50,000 population). But the second proposed amendment, after more than 74,000 days, was ratified on May 7, 1992. It's pretty simple and straight-forward:

No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened.

It means you can't vote yourself a pay raise and get the money until you have faced the voters. Should be simple, no? No.

Congress has simply changed pay raises to colas--cost of living adjustments. It has larded on the pension plan like nobody's business--the same with health care. Now, the amendment simply says compensation, not a word about the nature of the compensation. But nobody has ever gone to court to challenge the acts of Congress passed in the 20 years since the amendment was ratified. So Congress wins, you lose and you just wish you had a health care and pension plan like those thiev . . . er, ladies and gentlemen.

Never doubt the ability of Congress to do things just as they please.

We expect way too much of presidents. One of the big problems that all presidents face is that to get elected they have to make promises. But unless they carry a majority into Congress, and can rely on that majority for the intestinal fortitude to carry through the legislative agenda--they're not going to be keeping any promises. The winner in November can agenda in one hand, and poop in the other, and see which one fills up first.

cool avatar change, engineer