By John W. Lillpop
How is it that applicants for lower-level positions with the federal government are carefully tested and vetted before being hired, whereas those desiring to be Commander-in-chief are subjected to no objective evaluation of ability, character, knowledge of American history and values, and patriotism?
Why must a G5 records clerk pass a host of intelligence, criminal background, medical, and psychological tests before being assigned a dreary cubicle and a PC, whereas the successful candidate for Commander-in-Chief is given the nuclear codes and keys to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue without being required to produce so much as a valid birth certificate?
If ever there were an urgent need for change, it is in the method by which presidential candidates are screened (not).
Relying on the mainstream media or the major political parties to do due diligence is pure folly, especially so with respect to the media when the candidate is a liberal.
Objectivity is thrown out the window as the media becomes part of the advocacy campaign, rather than skeptical inquisitors.
Imagine how the Founders of this great nation would react to a media representative who declared that a candidate causes a "thrill to go up and down my leg," as one did in 2008.
When the media fail to question, probe, and investigate all candidates for the most powerful position on earth, a grave disservice is visited not only on the American people. but upon the entire world community as well.
America's thinkers need to devise a means to determine if a presidential candidate has the intelligence, grit, and experience needed to manage a nation of 300 million people, including the most sophisticated military arsenal on the planet.
A means for scrutinizing a candidate's public background of writings, associations, and actions is needed to root out those candidates with loads of charisma and cash, but little or no character.
Presidential candidates should be required to prove that they are intellectually and ethically qualified, and that they have the experience integrity to serve the American people.
The ability to raise hundreds of billions of dollars and give flowery speeches laden with platitudes and undeliverable promises should not qualify any candidate, regardless of party affiliation, to be president of these United States.
