To settle a lunch bet

[pyat]

Attention momentrabbit and nottheterritory:

Eisenhower was very bald, but not fat. Just jowly.

Comments

[pyat.livejournal.com]

I've argued that he may have been the last "pure" president, someone who was elected because he was a prominent and respected citizen BEFORE entering the political realm.

[foomf.livejournal.com]

All the more reason to make political office subject to a mandatory draft, and burdened with sufficient downside to keep it from being in any way desirable or effective to try to profiteer from it.

Sadly it wouldn't work.

[zenten.livejournal.com]

Why? Is it just because there's no way to make the office unappealing to everyone?

I mean, daily public floggings was my first idea, but obviously that wouldn't work.

[foomf.livejournal.com]

It would be rather difficult for them to be effective while at the same time making it impossible for them to profiteer.

[kisekileia.livejournal.com]

The problem now is that it's unappealing to many of the people who would be good at it, and appealing to people who are power-hungry rather than principled and are too hard-hearted to care what the media say about them.

[kesmun.livejournal.com]

Like how David Eddings describes the political system of the island of Tiga (I think) in the Tamuli?

[foomf.livejournal.com]

Might well be - but I got the idea from a Legion of Super-Heroes comic published in the late 1970s, wherein Tenzil Kim (matter-eater lad) is forced to leave because he has been drafted to public service．

[kesmun.livejournal.com]

I'll have to look and find the description. Heh.

[stress-kitten.livejournal.com]

Basically, when it's your turn to rule, all your assets are nationalized... if the country turns a profit, you turn a profit. If the country takes a loss, you take a loss.

:-)

No one wants the position, but when they're in it, damn do they try their hardest to make sure the country's economy is stable if not booming.

[kesmun.livejournal.com]

Yup. There was a little more to it, but that's the basics.