As I watch President Bush leaves office and watch President Elect Obama prepare to enter into it I am convinced all the more that we need to have each President serve 8 years with no possibility of a second term.
Why 8 years? Because 4 years is not enough to accomplish almost anything in a responsible way. Reform health care in four years? Good luck. Social Security? No way. Significantly alter anything before the next guy changes it all back? No.
Why no relection? So that the office will remain dedicated to its responsiblities. Not only does the president lose 1 1/2 right now to campaigning, I am utterly convinced that ever decision made in the first term is made with an eye to re-election.  Such pressure should no be placed upon entrusted with such responsibility.
So am I saying Obama for 8 years even though I voted against him? Well I guess I am. At least give him eight year to do what he wants and then we will really be able to tell what it accomplished, or what it destroyed? And if we were elected someone for 8 years perhaps people would be more serious about elections and the like.
What do you think?
We will have some presidents who, like you say, will only make decisions based on the idea of re-election but their decisions can and will, many times, still be bad. Is it better to wait it out for 8 years and then look around and say, “geez, look at all the damage this man/woman did” or to get him/her out after minimal damage (comparably) in 4? I like your idea, just wondering the pitfalls of it though.
The question is after four years do we ever even have a clue the results of the president’s policies? It sure does not seem to me we do, and so we often elect someone for another four anyways only by the end of eight to truly understand where he was taking us.
Is it that we don’t have a clue to where the President is taking us in four years…or that we, including myself, are blind, ignorant and uninformed to truly see some things that would give us good reason to keep him/her in office for another four or try and get them out after four? Thoughts?
Not sure, I think there may be some things we could tell in four years if we applied ourselves, but I truly think that most systemic changes would not give evidence of their success or failure in four years. Most would take a couple just to get implemented properly, and then you only have two years of preliminary data.