How to Choose a President?!

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same

Ronald Reagan

Like many, I believe the presidential election of 2012 represents a turning point in American history.  Of course, we could probably say that about all presidential elections but somehow this one seems more important, more ominous!  It seems as if we are at some kind of tipping point and the choice we make this year represents a tipping point of sorts.

As a nation we are to decide if we want to continue down a path, laid by President Obama and his Democratic Party friends, that leads to government intervention and rule over our lives or whether it is our desire to live our lives as free men and women, unencumbered by the heavy hand of a burdensome government  bureaucracy.  Our choice is between living as free people willing to take responsibility for our actions, whether they turn out for the good or bad, or living as a "kept" population always asking a sugar daddy government to bail us out when difficulties intrude on our lives!

The weight of this decision would be difficult in any case but as if to add injury to insult we have a Republican presidential field which, on its' face at least, seems underwhelming.  Many of us when asked to choose a presidential candidate might choose "none of the above".  What to do?

Next week South Carolinians will be asked to weigh-in by voting in the Republican primary.  The South Carolina primary is always important but this year I think we will have a major influence on who becomes our next president.  But how to choose?  We're bombarded by ads, mostly negative, and it seems that if we could just piece together one candidate out of individual pieces of the six candidates still in the race we would have the perfect candidate.  The road to a choice would be clear.  Alas, life isn't that easy. But as I've considered this and prayed about it the following four thoughts come to mind:

1)  There has never been a perfect candidate.  Many of us hold up Ronald Reagan as the prototype of the perfect conservative American president but before he became the great Republican president he was a Democrat.  If President Reagan had faced the same scrutiny visited upon modern day candidates I wonder if he would've been nominated.

2)  Ideas are important but they're not everything.  Each of the candidates still in the race have some good ideas.   But good ideas don't necessarily translate into real solutions to problems.  Great ideas are only important in so far as they can be enacted.

3)  Leadership and philosophy are more important than ideas.  I don't know how many of the policies enacted during Reagan's tenure were initiated by The Gipper.  Undoubtedly many were, but many also came from a Congress ready to work with him to overcome the difficulties our nation faced at that time.  The strength of all great presidents, it seems to me, flows largely from their ability to lead.  Leading isn't just about ideas.  Often it is about following bedrock principles and getting people to work together.  Leadership is about turning ideas into reality.  Our next great president, and I believe God will provide one, will be the person best able to convince and lead Americans as we struggle to define our way forward! (Updated - Saw this quote this morning, “A good scientist is a person with original ideas. A good engineer is a person who makes a design that works with as few original ideas as possible.” - Freeman Dyson.  A good president is more like an engineer than a scientist!)

So how do you practically apply these ideas as you choose which box to check during the presidential primary?  I think you need to look at the candidates and ask yourself which of these has the qualities of a leader.  They all have some good ideas but when you boil it down to leadership, at least to me, the picture becomes much clearer.  Out of six candidates I see three who have proven they can lead.  You can, and probably will disagree with me, but I feel Gingrich, Perry and Romney (listed alphabetically) have actually displayed leadership during their personal and political careers.  I will be voting for one of these.  I don't know which one yet but at least I only have three to consider.  

By now the savvy reader has noted I've given you three thoughts on choosing a president but promised you four.  Here's the fourth,  God will direct you if you ask Him!  I've narrowed my choices down based on prayer and feel God will direct us as a nation if we but seek His guidance!  Prayerfully consider the important decision you have before you!  America's rich blessings flow from the great gift of freedom He has generously given us.  A gift second only to His gift of grace!  Our freedom and prosperity flows from our faith in God!  It has been ever thus, may it ever be so!!

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
2 Corinthians 3:17