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Welcome to Techsurvivors => Community => Topic started by: gunug on December 02, 2007, 11:28:21 AM

Title: Who could pass a test to be president?
Post by: gunug on December 02, 2007, 11:28:21 AM

I was looking for follow up information about a story at ABCNEWS.COM and found a link to a story about a test for people running for president:

QUOTE

Why then are candidates for the presidency never presented with a few simple puzzles to help the electorate gauge their cognitive agility? The same goes for interviewers who ask the same dreary, insipid questions time after time and accept the same dreary, insipid non-answers time after time.

These puzzles shouldn't be difficult since, after all, the primary job of the president is to enforce the Constitution, ensure an honest and open administration, and, in some generalized sense, make things better. For this task, judgment and wisdom are more essential than the ability to solve puzzles. Nevertheless, I think some non-standard questions like the following would help winnow, or at least chasten, some of the candidates.

-- http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/WhosCount...2705&page=1

Wow! These aren't hard but they aren't really easy either! Is there a time limit?

Title: Who could pass a test to be president?
Post by: Gregg on December 02, 2007, 02:50:00 PM

We watched parts of "Shaq's Big Challenge" on TV last summer. (I'll not go into the premise for the sake of time.) One of the kids was being "interviewed" and said of the President's Physical Fitness Test, "I guess it's a test Presidents take".

Title: Who could pass a test to be president?
Post by: gunug on December 03, 2007, 07:54:12 AM

QUOTE

We watched parts of "Shaq's Big Challenge" on TV last summer.

I enjoyed that show but don't think any of the recent presidents could hack the test!

Title: Who could pass a test to be president?
Post by: dolphin on December 03, 2007, 10:39:08 AM

I think Presidential candidates should have to go on "Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader". If they lose or drop out...they should have to look into the camera and say "I am not smarter than a fifth grader and I don't deserve to be President."

Title: Who could pass a test to be president?
Post by: Gregg on December 03, 2007, 11:39:17 AM

QUOTE(dolphin @ Dec 3 2007, 10:39 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

....and my Mother approved this message.

Title: Who could pass a test to be president?
Post by: bil207 on December 03, 2007, 01:30:43 PM

Yesterday I met a president

Title: Who could pass a test to be president?
Post by: gunug on December 03, 2007, 01:34:49 PM

Well (and the devil will get me for saying this), he is smarter than a fifth grader but he only has the impulse control of a teenager!

Title: Who could pass a test to be president?
Post by: Gregg on December 03, 2007, 05:08:31 PM

QUOTE(bil207 @ Dec 3 2007, 01:30 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yesterday I met a president

Seeing a President (I've never (b]met[/b] one) is a big deal, no matter if you agree or disagree with the administration's politics. I saw Bush I during the campaign against Clinton, and Clinton was at an event right across the street from where I was working once. They had a tent set up, which the limo drove into and then they whisked him into the building. I didn't get a glimpse.

EDIT
My sons were invited to a rally with Clinton and chancellor Kohl with their German language school mates. They were right up front! But I was at work. We caught it on the local news.

Almost ran into Barbara Bush coming out of an elevator at the airport when George was VP.

Saw the train carrying Eisenhower back to Kansas for burial. Mamie stepped out the back and waved to the crowd.

Guess that's all I can remember...

Title: Who could pass a test to be president?
Post by: krissel on December 04, 2007, 07:12:57 AM

bil, are you in the video?

Only president I ever saw was Nixon when he came though our town during the 1960 campaign. I remember him giving a short speech while standing in a convertible that stopped in front of a local monument during his stump. He was actually VP at the time and lost that year of course.

OK, so I'm old.

Title: Who could pass a test to be president?
Post by: gunug on December 04, 2007, 08:01:19 AM

I admire Bill Clinton, just like I admire George Washington; both are/were men of their times with flaws and both put their pants on one leg at a time! It's not the man it's what he has accomplished that I find noteworthy! I knew I shouldn't have said anything about it!

Title: Who could pass a test to be president?
Post by: dolphin on December 04, 2007, 08:17:03 AM

Closest I ever came was meeting Ted Kennedy. He never ever ran for president did he...

Title: Who could pass a test to be president?
Post by: krissel on December 04, 2007, 08:49:08 AM

QUOTE(gunug @ Dec 4 2007, 09:01 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

both put their pants on one leg at a time!

Or not....

Title: Who could pass a test to be president?
Post by: Paddy on December 04, 2007, 09:48:04 AM

I was working in Prince Edward Island during the spring of 1979 when there was a federal election campaign in full swing. Both the leaders of the Conservative party and the Liberal party came through Charlottetown to give speeches. Everyone went (there wasn't a lot else to do...) and I just happened to be along the pathway through the gym for BOTH Pierre Trudeau and Joe Clark. So...I've shaken hands with two prime ministers of Canada. The election, on May 22, resulted in a minority Conservative government which lasted all of 9 months, at which point Trudeau's Liberals regained power. I also grew up living next door to Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson's brother Vaughan, though I never actually met Lester (saw him arrive to visit once - in a regular-sized black limo; no other security around...times were different in the mid-60's).

Title: Who could pass a test to be president?
Post by: kcourt on December 04, 2007, 10:13:53 AM

When I was about 6 or 7 my sister and I went to see FDR as he paraded down the streets of Columbus - we were in the front row and I remember he waved to us. When I was attending an OSU - USC game at the rose bowl in 1969 (when OJ ran about 92 yards for a touchdown), we saw President Nixon, Ronald Reagan and Bob Hope - all were given a standing ovation. I also met Nixon when he did a book signing at Buffums' Dept. store in Long Beach- he wasn't yet president.

I met Bob Hope on a movie set once - does this count????

Kathy

Title: Who could pass a test to be president?
Post by: gunug on December 04, 2007, 10:51:22 AM

Sargent Shriver (Maria's Dad) picked me up hitch-hiking once in Montgomery County, Maryland and was interested in my opinions on things (wish I'd had some good ones)! He was a Vice-presidential running mate of McGovern and drove a Lincoln.