Opinion: Running for president is crazy

a href="http://news1.capitalbay.com/news/296282-opinion-running-for-president-is-crazy.html">CAPITAL BAY•Dean Obeidallah
(CNN) -- I'm struck by one big question as I watch the Republican presidential candidates battle each other while President Obama tries to win re-election: Why does anyone want to be president?

It's like auditioning to be bandleader on the Titanic. And yes, I said bandleader and not captain because the captain of a ship has more of an impact on the direction of a voyage than President Obama, or any president who might follow him, can have in our hyperpolarized political climate.

With the onslaught of problems he faces today, I wouldn't be shocked if in the coming weeks President Obama appeared on national TV and declared: "I have an important announcement: I was actually born in Kenya. Joe Biden you take over, I'm outta here!"

But he won't quit. Instead, he will raise close to a billion dollars for his re-election campaign. Meanwhile, the Republican presidential candidates will viciously fight each other, like gladiators in the Roman Coliseum -- which, frankly, the past two Republican debates resembled. The audience jeered and booed, with some at times even applauding the death penalty and cheering the notion of allowing a person with no health insurance to die. All that was missing was a thumbs up or down from the crowd indicating if a candidate should be executed. (This, too, would undoubtedly have been met with cheers.)

Think about it: When you run for president, you are running for the worst job in America. If elected (or re-elected) you must deal with a cascade of domestic and international headaches.

But to me the greatest challenge facing our president (or a new president) is not the economy or the European debt crisis. It's not the growing influence of China, the Arab Spring or even the issue of Palestinian statehood.

Nope, the biggest challenge the president faces is us. Yes, "We the People." Simply put, we are horrible. We have become unreasonably demanding. We want everything now and we won't compromise.

"We the People" have become Veruca Salt from "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory," making demands in our high-pitched voices: "I want a goose that lays golden eggs and I want it now!!" "I want the deficit reduced now, Daddy!" "I want low taxes but the same government services!"

And if you won't give us what we want, when we want it, we will turn our back on you. For example, President Obama had almost a 60% approval rating after the killing of Osama Bin Laden in May, but just four months later a recent poll shows his approval rating at 39%. The left wants him to be more liberal, the right wants him to be more conservative and the middle just wants more.

The Republican presidential candidates have seen this, too, with Rick Perry being welcomed only a few weeks ago into the race like the "prodigal son," but now only a few weeks later, he looks more like a doomed NASA satellite about to fall from the sky.

What has caused us to become so demanding? The 24-hour news cycle and social media allowing instant real-time commentary have contributed. But an even bigger factor is our conditioning to reality show competitions on TV. On any number of TV shows each week, we watch, judge and vote on whether a person performs to our liking. One week we sing their praises, but the next week, if they misstep, they are dead to us.

We now treat our candidates this way. It's a presidential version of "Celebrity Apprentice," where we want to fire -- or at least dissect and scrutinize -- the president and presidential candidates for every small gaffe. I have seen better treatment for contestants on Gordon Ramsay's "Hell's Kitchen" than for our candidates for president.

If this keeps up, what type of candidates for president will we attract in the future? Will it be the smartest and the most qualified or those who, like reality show stars, can weather the cruel glare of an unending spotlight and the fickleness of our affection?

Even reality-show veteran Donald Trump's skin was too thin to run for president, which is shocking since his skin looks like leather. And, yes, that snarky comment is just the kind of thing I'm talking about, but I'm no better than the rest of us.

Since this seems to be what we crave, why not commit 100% to it and create political reality shows to choose our future presidents? What about shows like: "The Amazing Electoral Race," "Dancing with the Candidates," or "So You Think You Can Govern?"

We can vote people off until we are left with the man or woman who has survived by telling us exactly what we want to hear each and every week.

But if we don't take a break from this "American Presidential Idol" mentality, we will have no one to blame but ourselves when the 2016 presidential campaign pits Mike "The Situation" against the Kardashians.

Saudi monarch grants kingdom's women right to vote, but driving ban remains in force

STAR/TRIBUNE
Article by: ABDULLAH AL-SHIHRI and HAMZA HENDAWI , Associated Press
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, considered a reformer by the standards of his own ultraconservative kingdom, decreed on Sunday that women will for the first time have the right to vote and run in local elections due in 2015.

It is a "Saudi Spring" of sorts. For the nation's women, it is a giant leap forward, though they remain unable to serve as Cabinet ministers, drive or travel abroad without permission from a male guardian.

Saudi women bear the brunt of their nation's deeply conservative values, often finding themselves the target of the unwanted attention of the kingdom's intrusive religious police, who enforce a rigid interpretation of Islamic Shariah law on the streets and public places like shopping malls and university campuses.

That women must wait four more years to exercise their newly acquired right to vote adds insult to injury since Sunday's announcement was already a long time coming — and the next local elections are in fact scheduled for this Thursday. "Why not tomorrow?" asked prominent Saudi feminist Wajeha al-Hawaidar. "I think the king doesn't want to shake the country, but we look around us and we think it is a shame ... when we are still pondering how to meet simple women's rights."

The announcement by King Abdullah came in an annual speech before his advisory assembly, or Shura Council. It is an attempt at "Saudi style" reform, moves that avoid antagonizing the powerful clergy and a conservative segment of the population. Additionally, it seems to be part of the king's drive to insulate his vast, oil-rich country from the upheavals sweeping other Arab nations, with popular uprisings toppling regimes that once looked as secure as his own.

The United States, Saudi Arabia's closest Western ally, praised the king's move.

The king, in his own remarks, seemed to acknowledge that the Arab world's season of change and the yearning for greater social freedoms by a large segment of Saudi society demanded decisive action. "Balanced modernization, which falls within our Islamic values, is an important demand in an era where there is no place for defeatist or hesitant people," he said.

The question of women's rights in Saudi Arabia is a touchy one. In a country where no social or political force is strong enough to affect change in women's rights, it is up to the king to do it. Even then, the king must find consensus before he takes a step in that direction.

Prominent columnist Jamal Khashoggi said that giving women the right to vote in local elections and their inclusion in the Shura council means they will be part of the legislative and executive branches of the state. Winning the right to drive and travel without permission from male guardians can only be the next move.

"It will be odd that women who enjoy parliamentary immunity as members of the council are unable to drive their cars or travel without permission," he said. "The climate is more suited for these changes now — the force of history, moral pressure and the changes taking place around us."

Georgia executes man who claims he didn't do it

STAR/TRIBUNE
JACKSON, Ga. - Strapped to a gurney in Georgia's death chamber, Troy Davis lifted his head and declared one last time that he did not kill police officer Mark MacPhail. Just a few feet away behind a glass window, MacPhail's son and brother watched in silence.

Outside the prison, a crowd of more than 500 demonstrators cried, hugged, prayed and held candles. They represented hundreds of thousands of supporters worldwide who took up the anti-death penalty cause as Davis' final days ticked away.

"I am innocent," Davis said moments before he was executed Wednesday night. "All I can ask ... is that you look deeper into this case so that you really can finally see the truth. I ask my family and friends to continue to fight this fight."

Prosecutors and MacPhail's family said justice had finally been served. "I'm kind of numb. I can't believe that it's really happened," MacPhail's mother, Anneliese MacPhail, said in a telephone interview from her home in Columbus, Ga. "All the feelings of relief and peace I've been waiting for all these years, they will come later. I certainly do want some peace." She dismissed Davis' claims of innocence. "He's been telling himself that for 22 years. You know how it is, he can talk himself into anything."

Davis was scheduled to die at 7 p.m., but the hour came and went as the U.S. Supreme Court apparently weighed the case. More than three hours later, the high court said it wouldn't intervene. The justices did not comment on their order rejecting Davis' request for a stay.

Hundreds of thousands of people signed petitions on Davis' behalf and he had prominent supporters. His attorneys said seven of nine key witnesses against him disputed all or parts of their testimony, but state and federal judges repeatedly ruled against him — three times on Wednesday alone.

When asked Thursday on NBC's "Today" show if he thought the state had executed an innocent man, civil rights leader the Rev. Al Sharpton said: "I believe that they did, but even beyond my belief, they clearly executed a man who had established much, much reasonable doubt."

Davis' execution had been halted three times since 2007. The U.S. Supreme Court even gave Davis an unusual opportunity to prove his innocence in a lower court last year. While the nation's top court didn't hear the case, they did set a tough standard for Davis to exonerate himself, ruling that his attorneys must "clearly establish" Davis' innocence — a higher bar to meet than prosecutors having to prove guilt. After the hearing, a lower court judge ruled in prosecutors' favor, and the justices didn't take up the case.

His attorney Stephen Marsh said Davis would have spent part of Wednesday taking a polygraph test if pardons officials had taken his offer seriously. But they, too, said they wouldn't reconsider their decision. Georgia's governor does not have the power to grant condemned inmates clemency.

Davis' supporters included former President Jimmy Carter, Pope Benedict XVI, a former FBI director, the NAACP, several conservative figures and many celebrities, including hip-hop star Sean "P. Diddy" Combs.

'Don't ask, don't tell' repeal will be big relief for civilian partners of gay servicemembers

STAR/TRIBUNE
Article by: DAVID CRARY , Associated Press
NEW YORK - After 19 years hiding her relationship with an active-duty Army captain, Cathy Cooper is getting ready to exhale. On Tuesday, the policy known as "don't ask, don't tell" will expire. And Cooper will dare speak her love's name in public.

"This is life-changing," said Cooper, choking up. "I just want to be able to breathe — knowing I can call my partner at work and have a conversation without it having to be in code."

Much has been reported about the burdens that "don't ask" placed on gay and lesbian service members who risked discharge under the 1993 policy if their sexual orientation became known in the ranks. There's been less attention focused on their civilian partners, who faced distinctive, often relentless stresses of their own.

In interviews with The Associated Press, five partners recalled past challenges trying to conceal their love affairs, spoke of the joy and relief accompanying repeal, and wondered about the extent that they would be welcomed into the broader military family in the future.

Even with repeal imminent, the partners — long accustomed to secrecy — did not want to reveal the full identity of their active-duty loved ones before Tuesday.

Cooper, who works for a large private company, moved from the Midwest to northern Virginia to be near her partner's current Army post, yet couldn't fully explain to friends and colleagues why she moved. "It's been really difficult — it's really isolated us," she said. "I became much more introverted, more evasive."

Cooper said her partner's Army career is thriving, though she's had to hide a major component of her personal life.

"I don't know any of her co-workers," Cooper said. "She says, `You're the best part of me and I have to pretend you don't exist.'"

Looking ahead, Cooper is unsure how same-sex partners will be welcomed by the military establishment.

"Will it be, `Hey, come join all the family support programs'?" she wondered. "I'm not going to be so naive as to think that ... I'm just hoping the door is open."

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Students paying for budget cuts

Article by: COREY MITCHELL and KELLY SMITH , Star Tribune staff writers
As schools open across Minnesota on Tuesday, the tough economic times will be more noticeable to students, teachers -- and soon, taxpayers.

In November, a record 133 school districts say they'll ask taxpayers to support referendums to ward off cuts that have condensed class schedules, provoked higher pay-to-play fees and forced schools to resort to in-school advertising to make ends meet.

"We don't see an end in sight to the difficult budget cuts," North Branch Superintendent Deb Henton said. "It makes it extraordinarily difficult to look to the future and believe that things are going to improve."

When indexed for inflation, school revenue across the state has declined by double digits over the past eight years, according to a state Education Finance Working Group convened this winter. Referendums helped close that gap and, as costs rise, more districts than ever will seek help from taxpayers this fall. But with an economy that has left families cash-strapped, too, voters may be less likely to approve them.

In 2005, voters supported 80 percent of referendum questions. Last fall, the approval rate dropped to 23 percent, state records show.

In North Branch, school leaders will appeal to voters this fall for the eighth time after seven failed attempts. As students return to the second year of four-day school weeks, more crowded classrooms and cuts to everything from jazz band to middle-school soccer, leaders have pared back their request.

"Our kids just lack so many opportunities [because] we've cut so much," school board chairwoman Kim Salo said.

North Branch has joined the growing list of districts turning to advertising to drum up dollars, plastering ads on lockers and school mailings, football games and in staff lounges. The district is also allowing businesses to solicit at parent-teacher conferences. At a recent school open house, a local gym paid to set up a table and hawk memberships. The desperate measures follow $14 million in cuts over the past eight years, and "it just keeps getting worse and worse," Henton said, blaming the shift of raising property taxes from the state to the local level. "It's absolutely frustrating."

In Lakeville, voter rejection of a tax increase last fall left the school board facing a projected two-year, $15.8 million budget deficit. The impact was felt across the district: An elementary school closed. Scores of jobs were cut. Activity fees shot up, with the district charging up to $600 for hockey.

As president of the Minnesota Association of School Business Officials, Jeff Solomon has heard his colleagues across the state lament. Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan, where he's finance director, redrew walking boundaries in the spring, eliminating transportation for 2,000 students.

"Every school district has to be doing (that)," Bloomington district spokesman Rick Kaufman said. "There is no district in Minnesota that can sustain the current funding levels.