State of the Union, 2011

Obama's major points last night were about the government's role in the economy.  Obama wants the government to invest money in certain sectors of the economy, like clean energy, in order to create jobs and  compete with countries like China.  The speech was definitely boring to me, since I have heard these same things over and over again for years now, but it was a good political move.  Obama in putting Congressional Republicans in a difficult position, because they need to cut government spending to please their political base, but they also want to be seen as creating jobs.  Obama is setting the stage for his re-election campaign by positioning himself as a common-sense Democrat who wants to invest in job creation.

Last night Obama demonstrated the power to persuade that Neustadt described.  Obama cannot pass legislation himself, so his economic agenda will require Congress's consent.  Technically the state of the union address is supposed to be directed at Congress, but at this point the target audience is really the voting public.  Obama went to the public with his economic agenda, and hopefully the public will put pressure on Congress to cooperate.  He certainly seemed to use his power to persuade effectively, and at this point I think he has gained some political capital, even though he has lost some of his ability to implement policies since the Republicans took control of the House of Representatives.

Changes to the Presidency

I would change several of the Constitution's rules regarding the executive office.

First, and most importantly, the office should be renamed.  "President" is a boring name for what is currently a boring job.  The President should be renamed the Justicator.  A Justicator commands far more fear than a President, and we want our enemies to fear us.  And, since the executive has assumed some rather fantastic "war" related powers over the past few decades, the office could probably use a darker, more supervillainous aura.

Since all Americans must fear the Justicator, he (it seems to always be a man) should be chosen more directly by the people.  That will require abolishing the Electoral College.  In the past, wildly inadequate Presidents, most recently George W. Bush, have been chosen by the Electoral College, despite having lost the popular vote.  The President/Justicator wields frightening powers and must be responsive to the public, or else he is quite likely to abuse these powers.  He must therefore be elected by popular vote.

The requirement that the executive be born in the United States should also be dropped.  The voters aren't stupid and aren't going to elect a Manchurian candidate.  If an American citizen has lived in the country for 14 years and can convince his countrymen to elect him President, the place of his birth should be irrelevant.  Being "American" is about more than where a person was born.  The birth requirement is archaic and has allowed the outrageous "birther" conspiracy theory to take hold.  It has also prevented at least semi-plausible candidates such as Arnold Schwarzenegger from running.  I wouldn't have voted for the man, but that's neither here nor there.

Finally, I would clarify within the Constitution that a term-limited former President is ineligible for the Vice Presidency.  The twenty-second amendment prohibits a term-limited President from being elected President, not from serving as President, so theoretically, a former 2 term President could be elected VP and then become President upon the death or resignation of the current President.  Maybe the courts would figure out how to handle this one correctly based on the spirit of the law, and the point is probably moot anyway, but I think the document should be more specific.