[mike777]

With Biden announcing today and the news picking up his gaffe I just wonder why people go through this torture of running for President. Perhaps the power is just such a powerful intoxicant despite all the bile thrown at you by everyone in and out of your own party?

[helene_t]

I've asked myself the same question. But in a big country with a powerfull president like the U.S., I can sorta understand why some people might go for it. It's more difficult to understand why anybody would want to run for president of Switzerland. Allthough the election campaigns are cheaper and less nasty there. It's even more difficult to understand why somebody would run for coach of the English cricket team.

The evolutionary explanation is simple. In a species in which the parental burden is much higher for females than for males, the reproductive benefit of aquireing alpha status is much higher for males than for females (Genkis Khan had hundreds of children and it has been estimated that 70 million living men decent from him through the paternal line). Even if the president of the U.S. (and the English cricket coach) don't have the right to the same number of concubines as Genkis Khan had, power remains a psychological proxy for evolutionary succes. It also remains a target for evolution in modern Western societies, since smart, rich and powerfull men have the option of divorcing their first wife when she reaches menopause and remarying a young, fertile woman. And if you're a low-status man maried to a secretary, there's a fair chance that your (step) children carry the genes of your wife's boss.

[Al_U_Card]

Every kid dreams of being a prince or princess (or King or Queen) because they want everything without having to work for it. In reality, if you are not born into it...no chance. In the US, you can become president....so go for it.!

[Winstonm]

The reason everyone wants to be president is that where you find all the really "hot" interns, you get to play RISK with real armies if you can lie with a straight face., and if you really FU you can resign with assurance that your hand-picked replacement will pardon you so you don't have to go to the "big house".

[macaw]

Any moron can become president. I think we proved that.

[barmar]

Not any moron, just certain ones. Morons with money, morons with family connections, etc.

[brianshark]

You have to be very intelligent to become president. Unfortunately, it requires a certain kind of intelligence, and it's not the one that makes you a good president.

[macaw]

Quote

Not any moron, just certain ones. Morons with money, morons with family connections, etc.

I stand corrected

[mike777]

Great answers we only get morons and sex addicts running for President according to these posts.

[jtfanclub]

mike777, on Feb 2 2007, 04:54 PM, said:

Great answers we only get morons and sex addicts running for President according to these posts.

Hey! We also get plagarists, narcissists, small children (in mind) who want to be better than their daddy, POWs who had half their brain removed, and fools who are willing to shill for money.

And a Mormon. Don't ask me how he got into the race.

[luke warm]

mormon? *mormon*? what next, a catholic? oh wait, nevermind

[the saint]

helene_t, on Feb 1 2007, 09:48 AM, said:

Even if the president of the U.S. (and the English cricket coach) don't have the right to the same number of concubines as Genkis Khan had,

I can't get over the thought of the England Cricket coach with his concubines. That is seriously disturbing.

[mike777]

Concubines, Is that a Muslim or europe thingy?

[helene_t]

It's a human thing. The word is usually associated with China.