Who can be our next great President?

As a native Chicagoan, I have some affinity for a man from my own hometown. President Barack Obama was asked to change Washington. As the first U.S. President with an African-American parent, I continue to embrace him as a modern President. Someone who has experienced tremendous adversity throughout his life. Does this qualify him as a great President? At least a good President? Or is the U.S. in need of a change?

I do not profess to know everything about law and politics, but I know how it feels to be a taxpayer, citizen, and community servant. Therefore, I am going to select ONE individual that can be the next great President of the United States. Here are the qualifications based on the previous top 5 U.S. Presidents (Lincoln, FDR, Washington, Jefferson, and Teddy):

1. They must face great adversity along the way.
2. They must serve in a time of great civil unrest.
3. They must be willing to sacrifice the lives of hundreds of thousands of U.S. citizens in the name of peace.
4. They must be charismatic and capture the imagination of the people they serve.
5. They must believe in what they stand for.

It is a daunting task to try and sum up what makes great men and women great. Take Gabrielle Giffords as an example of an ordinary congresswoman who became great overnight. Nobody outside of the greater Tucson area had paid much attention to her. As of today, her Facebook page lists over 34,000 supporters. This is at least 4 times as many supporters as the typical congressperson receives on the social networking site. NOTE: Bristol Palin barely edges her out with just over 40,000 followers.

As Congresswoman Giffords clings to life, the American public invests themselves into her life, story, and what makes her so strong that she can take a gunshot to the head and survive. Now, Congresswoman Giffords is not my selection for the next great U.S. President because I am not sure that we, the people of the United States, will allow for another great President. We the people enjoy the faults of others. We the people communicate faster than at any point in the history of mankind. Would Lincoln be seen so favorable in today's media market? He was tall, lanky, not very good looking, and had failed in efforts to run for political offices. Who would vote for a man in a wheelchair? How about a General from the Armed Forces?

As the political pendulum swings from left to right and back again, it is hard to identify one single person to lead this country into the new frontier. If I were to vote an empty ballot today and had to write in one person, I would select someone who understand the power of new media, embraces the diversity of the Unites States, and finds new ways to incorporate the will of the people to making good, sound policy that can affect generations of Americans. Due to my lack of intimate knowledge regarding the personal beliefs and stances of public figures, I would write in the following name: David H. Petraeus.

General Petraeus would make me feel secure, protected, and I would be confident that he would have a clear understanding of what is taking place in he world around us. There may be better Generals or better leaders to choose from, but as an American, I want my freedom protected at all costs. Therefore, I would select a well-respected and decorated military figure like General Petraeus.

Who We Are

Hi. I’m Richard Godfrey. I am a 52 year old conservative. I was born in Canada but have been, for the last 9 years, involved in the challenging but ultimately valuable process of LEGALLY immigrating to the United States. I have lived in the U.S. as a child and as a student, before moving to Canada. I also spent a couple of years living in the U.K.  I have, throughout my career travelled extensively throughout a good chunk of the globe. I am a husband and a father. I have been married for more than thirty years and have, with my wife Heather, raised two mature, hard working and kind children – one of each – Jonathan is our eldest and Rachel our youngest.  I guess this is just a long way of saying…. I’ve got some experience under my belt - in time, in geography and in life.

Family Ties, which aired on television from 1982 -1989, is – in the character portrayed by Michael J. Fox (another Canadian, by the way) – a parallel of my life as a kid and a teenager. My family leans, primarily, to the left.  I have, since an early age, just like Alex Keaton in the television series, been an unapologetic conservative.

Fiscally, I am a free market, global, capitalist. With all its faults, capitalism is still the best way to raise individuals and groups out of the pervasive evil of poverty. Socialism, in its many guises, is interesting in theory but proven – after nearly 100 years of experimentation – not to work. I am a social conservative with well considered and strongly established positions on most social issues. 

I am religious – which is not to say I am perfect or that I know how everyone ought to live their life. Religion centers and focuses my life. My family have been Mormon (or LDS/Latter-day Saint, which is our preferred label) since the beginning of the religion.  I am here, not out of a sense of momentum or obligation or tradition – I am Mormon because I choose to be and because I believe its theology is substantial and beneficial.

I am, in most practical ways, leaning libertarian – just leave me alone, leave my money alone, leave my family alone. I’ll take care of me, my loved ones and my deserving neighbors – you take care of yours.

I believe in good and evil.  I believe both concepts can be defined. I believe good is more common than evil and that good ultimately triumphs. I live filled with hope, enthusiasm and a sincere joy for living. I believe it is still a beautiful world filled with great people.

I have had enough experience with people to believe they are, with very rare exception, good and decent. I believe most people want to live their lives secure in their basic liberties and God given freedoms. I believe most people seek peace and wish to live peacefully, but recognize that real evil exists in the world and must, sometimes, be confronted aggressively and violently.

This is a serious world and life is a serious experience. I believe we are responsible for our lives – our choices, the consequences of those choices and how, ultimately our life rolls out. I believe we have the potential individually and collectively to confront and conquer any challenge, honestly and well met. I believe we should take life seriously but should laugh regularly at ourselves – our biases, our mistakes, our triumphs and our tragedies. If this whole thing is going to be worthwhile, it should at the very least, be fun.

Jeff's Bio

When Richard asked me to join him in creating a quasi-political blog, I was intrigued to say the least. As a 30-something US citizen that is on the tail end of Generation X, my political perspective is vastly different than that of my Canadian counterpart. Even as I type this, I marvel at the fact that I am using a MacBook Pro to blog while I imagine Richard, sitting in his den, using a Dell PC. Although we do not agree on everything, we can agree that the landscape of American politics is dramatically changing. Now the real challenge placed before each of us is to figure out how to move a seemingly immoveable object like the US government.

With that said, allow me to introduce myself...

Born in a suburb on the northwest side of Chicago, I was raised in an extremely Republican family. My grandfather was a political activist for the Republican around the Chicago area and was well respected in his days as both a politician and a businessman. In fact, he created a township in Illinois known as Elk Grove Village as a snub to the democratic mayor of Chicago, Richard J. Daley. Mayor Daley was charging excessive tax rates to businesses trying to export/import goods in the city of Chicago so my grandfather created a township right next to Chicago and O'Hare International airport that did away with these taxes. To this day, Elk Grove Village continues to be an industrial center for businesses to set up outside of Chicago with convenient access to rail and air. My father was equally impressive in his political ways by heading the Parks & Recreation board in a suburb called Rolling Meadows for 15 years, earning him the key to the city. I respect my forefathers tremendously and owe a great debt of gratitude for what they instilled in me.

Me? I am a husband and a father. Family comes first. I coach soccer teams and baseball teams for my kids. I volunteer on the Alumni Board of my alma mater. I am actively engaged in the community through other non-profit organizations ranging from environmental concerns to the film industry. I work in finance/operations and tend to look at myself as an efficiency expert of sorts. I have been employed at the same job for over 10 years and may be for 10 more. I like to drive my wife's Prius to work. 55 MPG and free use of the carpool lane is hard to beat.

I am a Mormon from an "Irish Catholic" family. My father was not a very religious man. Believed in God and felt that my decision to join the LDS Church at the age of 20 was a good one. He always told me that it would provide me the foundation and guidance for a great life. My mother is a bit more religious than my father was which is probably why I ended up being a Catholic child as opposed to more of a general Christian like my father. I never had any issues with Catholicism. I attended church somewhat regularly, especially me catechism classes. Was confirmed a member of the Catholic Church at the age of 17. My decision to change faiths was not easy or quick. It was deeply personal to me and was not done for any reason other than my personal quest to find God. The LDS Church is a difficult faith to follow in terms of lifestyle and belief sets. I tend to believe that there are three gospels in this world; 1) The Lord's True Gospel, 2) False Gospel, and 3) Your Personal Gospel. All of us are part of number 3. Some may be closer to number 1 than other's but at the root of the matter, we are all on a path in one direction or another.

I voted straight-ticket Republican and even contributed to a Republican's campaign during the 2008 presidential primaries. However, something did not seem quite right. There were certain party "standards" that I felt were not in line with my own set of standards. So, I began the move to the middle. I am an Independent with no current party affiliation. I look for the best candidate that I feel can make a change (or at least prompt change) to something that is not quite right. I can't stand Nancy Pelosi because she stood in front of the House and yelled, "We got it back!" I can't stand John McCain because I felt that he choose a woman candidate as VP to try and gain the female vote to beat Barak Obama. I would support any race, sex, age, or creed of presidential candidate. They just need to be the right person with the right desire. Somewhere out there, we still have good people that want to do good things for America. Hopefully we can find them.

Let's be realistic. America is evolving at a pace that we, as a country, are having a hard time keeping up with. Long are the days when giving us your poor, your tired, and your huddled masses was simply an inspirational message etched into the Statue of Liberty. We are tightening up borders because we feel that the huddled masses are becoming the huddled majority. America is changing for better or worse. Here is where we will discuss what we think. Objectively and independently of each other, Richard and I are Mormons from both sides.