With another election creeping up on all of us ,think about this:
What a gigantic ego any presidential candidate must have to think that, with 300 Million people in this country ,they are the one person who can solve all of their problems...
that ,with 300 Million people in this country , they are the only one with all the answers...
that, with 300 Million people in this country ,they are the smartest one of all of them.
With another election creeping up on all of us ,think about this:
What a gigantic ego any presidential candidate must have to think that, with 300 Million people in this country ,they are the one person who can solve all of their problems...
that ,with 300 Million people in this country , they are the only one with all the answers...
that, with 300 Million people in this country ,they are the smartest one of all of them.
What conceit,what arrogance,what ego.
hippolips
If intelligence had anything to do with getting elected, Bush would be reading about the news in the outhouse, instead of making it in the White House!
I agree with you, though. It's largely about ego. But, it's got more to do with $$Money$$ than it does anything else. Why else would someone spend Millions of dollars to get elected to do a job which pays only $100,000? Obviously, there's more money to be made there than they're reporting.
Did anyone see Andy Rooney's bit on the President's schedule on "60 Minutes" this past Sunday?
He begins: "I'm at a loss to understand why anyone would ever want to be President of The United States. I know it's a great honor but can you imagine thinking you were smart enough to do the job? You should know something about every country in the world that we deal with and you ought to know everything about our own country so you can deal with that. You go to bed late at night, get up early in the morning and have meetings all day long. Do they give you any time to think when you're the president?"
Originally posted by methos: Not that it really changes things, but it's actually $400,000.
Is that Annually or Net?
Because, afterall, $100,000 per year x a term of 4 years= $400,000.
I was in the 8th Grade when my teacher made this point to my class. She said, "Why would someone want to spend Millions of dollars on a presidential campaign when they only make $100,000. per year IF they get elected?
That question has remained lingering in the back of my mind for the past 20 years... And, still, it goes unanswered.
What is not to understand? People who seek to be President of the United States are not doing it for the money. Most all of them are wealthy before even trying to run for the office.
Methos is correct, it is $400,000 per year salary, but that is in essence “pocket money” since the office comes with a lot of perks .
Posts: 3654 | Location: Long Island, New York USA | Registered: 06-03-02
I understand the retirement benefits are pretty good, too. Another thing to remember is that an ex-President can get $100,000 or more for a speech. Ten or twelve of those a year can supplement his pension quite nicely.
Remember, too, that, generally speaking, it's not the candidate's own money that he spends campaigning.
Posts: 17215 | Location: Lincoln Place, Granite City, IL, USA | Registered: 06-03-02
"I was in the 8th Grade when my teacher made this point to my class. She said, "Why would someone want to spend Millions of dollars on a presidential campaign when they only make $100,000. per year IF they get elected?
That question has remained lingering in the back of my mind for the past 20 years."
And you thought the salary hadn't gone up in 20 years? Actually, your teacher would have been wrong even then. As Koz's link shows, it hasn't been $100,000 per year for nearly 40 years.
And you thought the salary hadn't gone up in 20 years? Actually, your teacher would have been wrong even then. As Koz's link shows, it hasn't been $100,000 per year for nearly 40 years.
Yes, of course. As I said, that's going by a 20 year memory. Perhaps it was the same case when coming from my source.
I think it's safe to say that the true incentive here is POWER. Power includes Money and an ego to go with it. They usually go hand in hand.
Do you think it's also safe to say that the President is little more than a talking/figure head, and that the real power lies in his backing? The people who put him in office? And, that he in turn serves the loyalties and interests of those people? And, given the circumstances of the past 2 elections, those people I'm referring to aren't the American public (but, a small majority).
Valor, aren't your last two paragraphs contradictory?
I've always maintained that the [office of] President is more puppet than anything else. The real 'power' lies within a small intelligence community, perhaps not even the intelligence folks we hear about. That's just my opinion.
Contradictory or not, I think I sort of agree with both of you, Kendor and Valor D. In the present case, Cheney, Wolfowitz, Rice, Rove, Rumsfeld, etc. are all very clever manipulators of ego-driven imbeciles like their puppet, George W. However the puppet wields tremendous power and when he begins to believe what the swarm of sycophants feed him daily, he can inflict terrible dmage on the rest of the civilized world, and they can't put the genie back in the bottle. Frankenstein's monster can terrorize the whole village, but the townsfolk are practically powerless. IMHO.
