.jpg)
May 4, 2023 Editor, The News-Gazette: A question for you: As we look at the coming presidential primaries and election, why do we pour our judgment on the personal qualities of a candidate versus the actual performance they’ve provided?
There are no mortal beings that fit all of our standards, creeds or faiths. Surely we’ve realized the perfect presidential person is nowhere on the horizon. Then why is it so easy to identify and cling to the personal failings of a candidate and forgo consideration of their performance as a leader?
For example: we’re quick to see and long remember rancorous attitudes, bumbling words and emotional decisions. What about their success, or lack of: effective decisions, lasting productivity, bringing teams together - building venerable structures?
When did “personal attributes” come to outweigh “tangible outcomes”?
Quoting columnist Peggy Noonan, “Look at people’s faces when you say, ‘Looks like it’ll be Biden and Trump.’ Those faces tell you everything — the soft wince, the shake of the head, the sigh. Those are the emblems of the 2024 campaign right now.”
These “emblems” need not survive to attainment. The leading candidates placed before us are not yet the president of 2024 and beyond. We still have a choice and responsibility to reach past this din of inevitability and choose candidates worthy of leading a still great country. I have no names to push on you. But after 3-plus decades of service to our country, I can affirm this land has better choices to make on the path to choosing our next president.
But ... we must read, consider, decide and vote to get there. Not “wince” our way to a president.
DANE P. WEST Natural Bridge
