President - One and Done

We should limit Presidents and Vice Presidents to one term.  At present it is difficult to lead the country. The opposition political party constantly denigrates the President and Vice President - partly because they want the office at the next election. 

Some of this distasteful political rhetoric would stop if neither the President or Vice President could ever run again for either office in the future. They would serve one term only - one and done. 

They should be more able to focus on important issues without the calculus about whether a given action will hurt their future prospects. For example, changes to social security and medicare must be made - but no President dares to take the lead for fear of losing the next election. No next election - our leadership is more likely to make the politically difficult changes required.

Most of what a President achieves is in his first term. That is when he has the most energy and usually the most support from his party. In general his party loses seats in subsequent elections. President Clinton, Bush, Reagan, Nixon, and Eisenhower achieved the most in their first terms - the second term often involved scandals or problems which diminished their reputations.

Can you imagine trying to lead a major corporation if half of your employees were constantly running you down, calling you incompetent, and demanding that you resign? That is pretty much what we do with our nation. This is stupid. We should change the paradigm.

The Vice President must also be kept from running for President.  Otherwise the opposition would continue to denigrate him or her to diminish him or her for the next election.

The President and Vice President get the same retirement benefits whether they serve four years or eight. The logical decision for them is to serve one term and they go on to something else useful.

I would advocate that this become law, but some time in the distance so it does not effect the current President. And if President Obama was listening, I suggest to him that serving one term would be in his own self interest and that of the country.  He has achieved some notable things in his first term. He is unlikely to achieve much else whether he serves two or six more years. And he could get on with the rest of his life and career in two years, rather then in six years.

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My friend and media celebrity H. Wayne Wilson suggests the same approach for Governors and Lieutenant Governors. I agree with his suggestion. As a native of Illinois, if we had such an arrangement we would have only had to suffer one term of Governor Blago.

Congressmen and State Legislators, are you listening?

Probably not.