How to Select an American President: Improving the Process by Promoting Higher Standards

By James A. Rodger and James A. George

Presidential campaigns often seem like popularity contestsand that needs to change.

While some savvy American voters are becoming more reflective about the need to carefully pick presidents, that hasnt stopped the system from being eroded by special interests that endanger our liberty and freedom.

The authors propose a disciplined approach for evaluating a candidates resume. In developing such a process, they share the resumes of the former U.S. presidents as well as a scoring method that can be used to compare them and prospective candidates.

By examining the credentials and performance of past presidents and using techniques employed by Fortune 500 companies to create a knowledge, skill, experience, and proficiency profile, we can make significant headway in selecting the best candidates.

Anyone can aspire to become president, but that doesnt mean we should elect our neighbor. Find out how to evaluate who is most qualified for the job in How to Select an American President.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Archway Publishing
• Release date: Jan 24, 2017
• ISBN: 9781480840898

James A. Rodger

James A. George and James A. Rodger worked in concert to support the government and commercial clients for nearly twenty years. Both possess expertise in different aspects of systems engineering and performance optimization technologies. George is a former executive and entrepreneur whereas Rodger is an academic and professor. Together, they engaged clients at the U.S. Department of Defense and Department of Health and Human Services with sponsorship from members of the U.S. Congress. They are also the authors of How to Select an American President.

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Copyright © 2017 James A. George.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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ISBN: 978-1-4808-4088-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4808-4089-8 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016920269

Archway Publishing rev. date: 01/23/2017

Contents

Dedication

Preface

Brief Description

Foreword By Mark Critz

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Chapter 1 Need For Guidance For Selecting A U. S. President

1.1 What Is Wrong With A Popularity Contest For President?

1.2 Sources Of Information

1.3 Candidate Age And Health

1.4 Historical Review

1.5 Historical Synopsis Of Candidate Resumes

1.6 Pre-Presidential Candidate Resumes Summery

Chapter 2 Analysis Of The Duties And Responsibilities Of The President Of The United States

2.1 United States Constitution

2.2 Selecting A Vice President

2.3 Model For 21St Century U. S. Government Enterprise

Chapter 3 A U. S. President Job Model

3.1 Six Primary Tasks Of The U. S. President’s Job Model

3.2 Presidential Work And Outcomes

3.3 Talking About Presidents

Chapter 4 Derivation Of Skill, Knowledge, Experience, And Proficiency Requirements

4.1 Criteria

4.2 Research Presidential Character, Behavior And Management Style

4.3 Where Should We Look For Future Presidents?

Chapter 5 U. S. President Job Qualifications Criteria

5.1 How To Judge A Candidate

5.2 Presidential Candidate Evaluation Template (Worksheet)

5.3 Describing The Ideal Candidate For President Of The United States

5.4 Testing The Worksheet Items

5.5 Possible Lifecycles Of A 21St Century Presidential Candidate

5.7 Weighting And Scoring Evaluation Criteria

5.8 Scoring Candidates

Chapter 6 The Final Exam: Case Study Evaluation Of Presidential Incumbents And Candidates Comparing Them With Job Qualifications

6.1. Fast-Track And Incumbency Lifecycle

6.2 Scoring Obama

6.3 Scoring Past Presidents

6.4 Undeclared Presidential Candidates For The 2012 Election

6.5 Election 2012, Declared Candidates’ Evaluations

Chapter 7 Election 2016, Putting The System To Test With A Qualitative Review

7.1 What Is Constant, What Is Changing, What Is New?

7.2 Scoring Presidential Candidates For Election 2016

7.3 Can Presidential Candidates Be Groomed For Office, Or Must They Just Be Discovered?

7.4 Caveat Emptor

Chapter 8 Lessons And Implications From The Election 2016 Cycle

8.1 Process Audit

8.2 Possible Changes

8.3 A U.s. President Manifesto Standard

Chapter 9 ‘The American President’s Team,’ Indiana University Pa Contribution

9.1 Making The Approach Actionable And Discoverable

9.2. Designing Enabling Technology

Epilogue

Endnotes

About The Author

DEDICATION

To my Grandsons, Aquilla and Eugene as they might one day take up the mantle for change and improvement.

PREFACE

Dr. James Rodger and I worked on this book since 2011 when we wanted to influence how American voters evaluate presidential candidates. The original idea began sometime before that following our having published Smart Data, Enterprise Performance Optimization Strategy © 2010 Wiley Publishing.

While Smart Data sounds like an information technology text, and it is, the contents apply more broadly because the application examples include both commercial and government enterprises. It includes a case study example from observing the Obama administration from the outset of his first term as President.

Noted then are flaws in his management approach. Also noted, are opportunities to improve government performance. That was our swim lane as publishers refer to it. We concluded then as now that the American political system and the government need major improvement, and that cannot happen until citizen voters become smarter about how they select candidates for public office. Our target was the office of president of the United States.

To begin, we researched to recreate the resumes of all past presidents to observe how their resumes might have appeared to the public as candidates for office. To accomplish the research, we relied on the same sources and techniques that are available to the most diligent voters. That is, we Google-searched the internet and relied heavily on information in Wikipedia, for instance.

Readers should know that we performed diligently to study the situation. Initially, we intended to pursue telling our story as an academic book. Our various publishers considered that, but because we are not political science and history professors, they didn’t embrace the idea. Is there something wrong with that?

Yes, the traditional publishing industry is not doing well because it is not adaptive to the needs of the reader public, nor are traditional publishers keeping pace with the demand for contemporary information. Taking on a challenging project such as this, on our own, means that we must credit our sources and to appropriately obtain permissions to aggregate information that we have used to develop a better process for evaluating presidential candidates’ resumes.

Concluding an analysis, the approach is applied to how citizens might evaluate candidates to all elected offices, not just for the US President. In completing this effort, Dr. Rodger engaged assistance from students in Management Information Systems at Indiana University, PA where he is a professor. The intention is to encourage the development of an application that will support the process and method.

Now, this book is the first in a series that will continue to address how to improve the American political system that is the government of the United States. Readers are encouraged to participate in the process by sharing your ideas.

Who are the authors to address these topics? One author is an entrepreneur, industry executive, former CEO, and independent journalist. The other is a college Professor of information technology. Both have consulted together in addressing the complex needs of the US Department of Defense, and Health and Human Services with award-winning results.

James A. George and James A. Rodger

BRIEF DESCRIPTION

American voters need to improve the process for how they select American presidents. Today and throughout history, electing a president has been a popularity contest with deficient consideration for candidates’ resume’s and qualifications. Too often, voters are swept by conversations about traditional issues that may or may not portend relevance throughout a term in office. The authors propose a disciplined approach for evaluating candidate resumes.

Understanding the job of president is prerequisite to evaluating resumes. The president’s job model defines the work. The president’s job model is used to derive knowledge, skill, proficiency and experience requirements. In developing the process, the authors recreated the resumes of all former US presidents. The authors developed a scoring method such that leaders and prospective candidates can be compared using a standard approach.

Outstanding Features List: Urgent need

• Historical Context — Demonstration of historical study rigor suggested for voters

• Presidential Resumes — Creation of presidents’ resumes from readily available sources

• President’s Job Model — Unique definition of the president’s job based on the Constitution and practice

• Knowledge, Skill, Experience and Proficiency Profile — Employing techniques used by Fortune 500 companies as best practices

• Voter-driven Resume Scoring Process — Unique resume scoring process that is voter adaptive and responsive

Apparatus

Table/Score lists are employed extensively with an infographic depicting a timeline. The book may be used as a text in both information systems and political science.

Competition

There are many political science books and texts, however, there are none that propose such a process with a focus on evaluating candidate resumes.

This book is linked in concept to Smart Data, Enterprise Performance Optimization Strategy by James A. George and James A. Rodger (c) 2010 Wiley. It is also tied conceptually with Sustainable Economics, America’s Path Toward Regeneration by James A. George and James A. Rodger (c) 2015 All Rights Reserved (publication pending). With broad appeal, it is not an academic exercise. In fact, by design, the process for evaluating presidents’ resume’s is actionable based upon readers accessing readily available information from Internet sources with caveats.

When used for teaching purposes, students are encouraged to employ the text as an outline for more rigorous investigation.

Traditional political science texts can greatly enhance the foundation of this book by suggesting the application of statistical analysis and survey techniques to validate and verify ideas and approaches that may be refined from more application.

FOREWORD BY MARK CRITZ

"When I was asked to write this foreword, I immediately agreed because, as a former Member of Congress, I took my job very seriously and I felt very strongly that I had something to say in the name of good government. But it might not be from the perspective you think. Sure, I had gone through some high-profile elections of my own. Yes, I had worked in a Congressional office and worked many campaigns over the span of fifteen years. Also, I had been involved in local politics for many years which gave me a tremendous grounding in the grassroots component of what government and politics truly is.

But were those experiences all that I needed to be an effective congressman? No. Serving as an elective official is different from knowing many of the ingredients. Just as someone may know what flour and sugar are, it doesn’t mean they are experts at making cake.

So when Congressman Jack Murtha died in February, 2010, the constituents of Pennsylvania’s 12th Congressional District looked to see who would step up to fill the void left by this larger-than-life public servant. It was at that moment that my divergent paths crystallized in my mind and I realized that I had been training for this opportunity for over twenty years. I use the term training specifically because the skills and knowledge needed to be an effective Member are similar to that of the President.

Despite all my training, I quickly learned that I had much to learn about the differences of working for an elected official and actually being one. I didn’t even know my way around the capitol building! There was much to learn about many things: diplomacy, economics, marketing, national security, the military, energy and environmental policy.

But in comparison to a member of Congress, and considering the sheer magnitude of the responsibilities of the office of the President of the United States, how does one human being carry the actual weight of our entire nation, the world’s economic leader, the leader of the free world, the protector of those in need the world over? This is a multi-trillion-dollar organization with equally divided power, but with a single individual identified as our leader. That individual manages and chooses managers, inspires and develops the vision, works with, or against, the legislative branch to move our Nation.

Does any of this matter, though? Can anyone truly do this job? Or would a better question be, how does anyone do this job? Does it take an amassment of skills or does it just need specific skills? How do you pick a leader who’s also a master manager who’s also an adept delegator and who’s also always the most informed person in the room?

Without bias, the authors successfully examine past Presidents existing skills and their performance as President. By doing this, they build skill sets to see who was successful and why. But can you measure leadership? Which General looked like they’d be the better President, George Washington, Ulysses S. Grant or Dwight Eisenhower, all leaders of our armed forces? Did Harry Truman’s start in local politics help foretell that when he transcended to President that he had the skill set and leadership abilities to handle the responsibilities of the job? Who has performed better as President, former Governors or former Legislators?

By also analyzing the job duties itself and the support structure and duties of those around, the authors give the reader a quick tutorial on the vastness of the US government and what a President has purview over. It’s an overwhelming undertaking, don’t you think?

As you read through this you will become more cognizant of the duties of the office and the offices that support the President; of the skills and traits of past Presidents and you’ll have the opportunity to look, with an unvarnished eye, and decide why Presidents were successful. It also reinforces how important the job of President of the United States is and that the more skills an individual brings with them, the better chance that they will have a grounded view on what is needed and how to be successful.

I’m writing this as the 2016 Presidential field is being winnowed and would recommend to anyone to consider all that this book is trying to impart. In the barrage of information, you’re receiving on the current candidates and also what they said and did this week and last week and when they were younger, it’s even more imperative they be examined for who they truly are and what they want to do and what you believe they will be able to do as President.

In a quickly changing world this President needs an economic policy to address the growing power of foreign economies and their impact on our economy.

As terrorism grips nations across the world, this President will have to determine what’s needed to ensure our security and what the necessary steps are to accomplish that.

With polar ice caps melting, this President has to decide what environmental policy is in the best interest of Americans.

All elections are popularity contests in some way, but charisma and popularity should only be a small portion of the reasoning for picking our leaders. There is a vast amount of information available to us and you can use this publication to balance your decision on factors that will help you pick a candidate you not only like, but who actually has the skills to succeed as President of the United States. I am.

Mark Critz"

Mark Critz is dedicated to public service. Mark spent more than a decade working on behalf of western Pennsylvanians as a congressional staffer for Congressman John P. Murtha, first as his Director of Economic Development and then as District Director. After Congressman Murtha passed away, Mark decided to run for his seat and was first elected to the US House of Representatives in May 2010 to fulfill the rest of Congressman Murtha’s term in the 111th Congress. Mark was re-elected in November 2010 to serve a full-term in the 112th Congress where he served until January 2013.

As a member of the House Armed Services Committee, Mark fought to ensure that our military is fully prepared to meet worldwide threats and challenges. Having traveled the country, and globe, meeting with our men and women in uniform, he fought to ensure that our troops are taken care of both on the battlefield and when they return home.

Mark was recognized for his excellent service to our nation’s military when he was awarded the Patrick Henry Award by the National Guard Association of the United States (NGAUS) in 2008. The Patrick Henry Award is designed to provide recognition to local officials and civic leaders, who, in a position of great responsibility, distinguished themselves with outstanding and exceptional service to the Armed Forces of the United States, the National Guard or NGAUS. It is the highest civilian award issued by the National Guard.

In Congress, Mark also served on the House Small Business Committee and became the lead Democrat on its Agriculture, Energy and Trade Subcommittee – fighting to ensure that the ideas and concerns of our local small businesses are heard in Washington, D.C. Understanding the enormous economic potential that the Marcellus Shale gas industry can have on the future of western Pennsylvania and our nation, Mark co-founded the House Marcellus Shale Caucus to help members of Congress get a better understanding of the issues surrounding shale gas. He also introduced legislation in 2011 to authorize grants to strengthen the on-the-job training programs for workers in the natural gas industry to help ensure that jobs go to Pennsylvanians and not workers from out-of-state.

An active member of the Congressional Task Force on Seniors, Mark sponsored legislation to protect and strengthen Social Security and Medicare. Mark received the Social Security and Medicare Hero Award from the Pennsylvania Alliance for Retired Americans in September 2011 for his tireless work on behalf of seniors.

In 2015, Mark was asked by Governor Tom Wolf to join his administration as Executive Director of the Rural Development Council. In this capacity Mark will advise the Governor on policy as it impacts rural citizens and serves as the advocate for rural Pennsylvanians to the Governor.

Mark and his wife, Nancy, a speech pathologist in the Greater Johnstown School District, live in Johnstown with their twin children.

Awards:

• Patrick Henry Award, National Guard Association of the US

• Knight of the Honorable Order of St. Michael, Army Aviation Association

• Laurel Highlands Veteran Community Award, Veteran’s Community Initiatives

• Friend of the Farm Bureau Award, American Farm Bureau Federation, 2010, 2012

• Golden Triangle Award, National Farmer’s Union, 2011, 2012

• Social Security and Medicare Hero Award, PA Alliance for Retired Americans

• Outstanding Government Honoree, Greater Westmoreland County Central Labor Council

• Richard Crawford Award, St. Francis Univ. Small Business Development Center

• Inductee, All-American Amateur Baseball Assoc. Hall of Fame

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors wish to acknowledge the value-added by certain academics, especially Margaret Zulick, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Communication, Wake Forest University whose research and instruction about the history of political parties in America is comprehensive as it is succinct.

The authors are especially appreciative of Indiana University PA students who participated in advancing the framework for an application to support the idea.

The authors benefited greatly from Wikipedia and open sources of research information. Academics have issues with using Wikipedia for research purposes because sources must be verifiable. In our instance, we used Wiki to construct past president’s resumes, and that is readily verifiable. We use internet sources because that is what citizen voters are likely to use, and there is little wrong with that with the caveat to be aware that some information may be biased. That is life, after all.

INTRODUCTION

Authors Backgrounds: James A. George and James A. Rodger

James A. George

Independent journalist, author and writer, former consultant to government and private enterprise in performance improvement, logistics, and information technology

Education

Franklin University, Columbus, Ohio 1975

B.S. Business Administration with minor in Journalism

Operations Research and Production Management

The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1966-1971

College of Education, Industrial Technology

University of California at Berkeley, 1997-2002

Academic Director, Course Developer, Instructor

Berkeley Worldwide

Nihon University, Tokyo Japan 1998, 2001

Conference Instructor, Information Literacy and Electronic Commerce

Experience

Independent Journalist, Examiner, Clarity Media

5,000 articles in five years: National Politics Examiner, National Prepper Examiner, Arlington Arts Examiner, Arlington Outdoors Examiner 2010-2015

CBS News, Affordable Care Act writer, 2014

Author

Sustainable Economics, America’s Path Toward Regeneration by James A. George and James A. Rodger © 2016 Springer (pending)

Environmental Energy Strategy: An Induced Linguistic Ordered Weighted Average Approach to Sustainability by James Rodger, Indiana University of Pennsylvania and James George © 2015, The International Journal of Sustainability in Economic, Social and Cultural Context

Smart Data, Enterprise Performance Optimization Strategy by James A. George and James A. Rodger © 2010 Wiley

Stockpile Management is a New Priority; Council od Supply Chain Management Professionals © 2008

Interview with Scottie Knott, Defense Logistics Agency Acquisition Chief and Mae DeVencintis, DLA Chief Information Office, by James A. George, Washington Bureau Chief, Align Business Journal, 2007

Defense Single Point of Entry Business Case, 2006, Association for Enterprise Information

Model-Driven Data Exchange Using ISO 10303 Product Life Cycle Support Standard Aviation Maintenance Application, 2006, Association for Enterprise Information

Service-Oriented Enterprise (SOE) Management Paradigm and Strategy, Business Integration Journal, 2005

Enterprise Information Interoperability Workshop for the DOD Logistics Information Enterprise Trading Exchange (ELITE) Program Office, 2004

Management Approach to Securing America, Critical for Homeland Security Success, Washington DC Conference, 2003/ManTech International

Airline Business Solutions Strategy, Air Travel & Transport Information Systems Conference, Amsterdam 2002 (on behalf of PriceWaterhouseCoopers)

Essentials of the Strategy for Optimizing Performance with Information Technology, Aerospace and Defense Application, PWC and the Association for Enterprise Information, 2002

Accounting for Knowledge Required to Optimize Performance in a Defense Enterprise, Office of the Secretary of Defense, PWC, 2002

Integration Constants, Association for Enterprise Information, 2002

Information Interoperability Strategy for DOD JCS/J6, PWC Consulting, 2001

EBusiness, Nihon University Graduate School of Business, Tokyo Seminar 2000

Knowledge Can Be Rescued from Old Paradigms, E-Gov Magazine 2000

Ecommerce and EBusiness Strategies, UC Berkeley Worldwide and Altier Business School, Madrid, Spain 2000

Rapid Cycle Research & Development, UC Berkeley Worldwide, 1999

IT & Knowledge Management, UC Berkeley Worldwide, 1999

Modeling, a Foundation for Enterprise Integration, Electronic Industries Association 1999\

Information Literacy: Global Industry View and Transactionalist Theory, Asia Pacific Economic Cooperative (APEC) Conference on Information Literacy, 1997

A Model for Information Literacy by James A. George, University of California at Berkeley Worldwide © 1997 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperative, Nihon University, Tokyo, Japan

Management Cultures East & West, UC Berkeley Worldwide, 1997

Continuous Acquisition & Life Cycle Support Standards, James A. George and John Chun Sup Park, Korea 1996

New Business Engineering, D. S. Appleton Company 1994

Self-Assessment Process, Achieving Manufacturing Excellence, National Center for Manufacturing Sciences, 1994

Landmark Research, Why CEOs Change Accounting and Audit Firms, 1987, Peat Marwick

Management Consulting, Management and Entrepreneurial Experience

Senior Logistics Engineer, MTS Technologies: DOD Backorder Breakout Initiative, Supply Chain Response Improvement Sense-making, and Prediction, 2007-2008

Management Director, ManTech Systems Engineering and ManTech Enterprise Integration Center, Program Manager Joint Strike Fighter Single Point of Entry; PM Emergency System for the Advanced Registration of Volunteer Health Professionals, 2002-2007

Principal Consultant, PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC Consulting) Washington Consulting Practice supporting the Deputy Under-Secretary Defense Supply Chain Integration, 2001-2002

Director Electronic Commerce & Logistics Systems, MTS Technologies, 1998-2001 supporting the DOD Joint Electronic Commerce Program Office and served as liaison for the Office of Secretary of Defense and the Aerospace Industries Association

Vice President, Interlinear Technology, 1996-1998 establishing the Oakland Electronic Commerce Resource Center

CEO, Radcliffe-George LLC, woman-owned business supporting Northrop Grumman NCAD divestiture 1993-1994

Vice President, D. Appleton Company, 1989-1993 supporting the Office of Secretary of Defense Acquisition & Logistics CALS Program; EDS General Motors C4 Program, B1 Bomber Integrated Data Strategy, Northrop Grumman Contractor Integrated Information Support Program

President & CEO, Talon Publishing & Research, 1984-1989

Vice President & Publisher, Hitchcock Publishing Division of the American Broadcasting Companies, Publisher, Infosystems Magazine, 1980-1983

Advertising and Marketing Director, Bendix Automation & Measurement Division, 1978-1980

Management Development Manager, Sherwin Williams, 1976-1978

Course Developer and Instructional Media Consultant, AT&T 1970-1976

Awards

Office of Secretary of Defense Supply Chain Integration and Joint Electronic Commerce Initiatives, 2001

Defense Contract Management Agency, Single Process Initiative Director’s Commendation 2000

National Defense Industry Association Award from President for the CALS initiative 1998

Asia Pacific Conference on Information Literacy 1997

Dr. James A. Rodger, Professor

Department of Information Systems and Decision Sciences

Indiana University PA, Eberly College of Business and Information Technology, Information Systems and Decision

Academic Background:

DBA, Southern Illinois University, Business Administration - MIS, 1997

MBA, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Masters of Business Administration, 1990

BS, University of Pittsburgh, Biology, 1974

Biography

James A. Rodger is a professor of Management Information Systems and Decision Sciences at Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP). He received his doctorate in MIS from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale in 1997. Dr. Rodger has published several journal articles related to these subjects. His work has appeared in the following journals: Journal of Computer Information Systems, Issues in Information Systems, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, International Journal of Hybrid Intelligent Systems, Information and Software Technology, Information Technology and Management. Annals of Operations Research, Communications of ACM, Computers & Operations Research, Decision Support Systems, Expert Systems with Applications, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, and International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, as well as several other journals.

This Book

To what extent does the content of resumes indicate the future performance and viability of candidates for any elected position to which they are aspiring incumbency? Using common business practices that may very well be best practices, it is suggested that voters evaluate candidates for elected office in the same manner that they might be evaluated by their employers for prospective jobs.

In a sense, every citizen in the United States of America has an opportunity, if not an obligation, to act in the role of a hiring employer when it comes to selecting and electing candidates for public office. It cannot be presumed that every citizen in the voting public knows how to do this. That is why this subject is so important.

To evaluate resumes of candidates for the job of president of the US, one must have a job description and must have a list of required and desired qualifications. As it stands today, there is no job description and there is no list of qualifications beyond a skimpy set of legal requirements as specified in the US Constitution.

Therefore, the present process employed by citizens to select and elect presidential candidates might be described as an ad hoc popularity contest. It might also be described as a battle of donations by wealthy campaign contributors. Running for president consumes much money. Running a campaign requires much organization, planning, and strategizing.

Yet, where in the process is the formal requirement for candidates to declare and publish their prospective agendas and their manifestos describing how they intend to produce defined outcomes? What are the nation’s required outcomes? What are their respective performance measures? These are the topics offered for discussion here:

Relevance of US Constitutional requirements

• The US Constitution specifies certain requirements for presidential candidates

• Relevance of presidential candidate resumes

• Predictive attributes

The person must be a natural-born citizen of the United States and must have been a permanent resident of the US for at least 14 years. Each candidate must be at least 35 years of age.

• What is the relevance of being a natural-born citizen?

• What is the relevance of having been a permanent resident?

• What is relevant about being at least 35 years of age?

It is a bit of trivia that 8 of the nine first presidents were born under the British Crown. The natural-born citizen requirement was apparent to ensure that candidates were not unduly influenced by foreign governments. Being required to have had recent residence might ensure that candidates are intimately familiar with the matters of the nation? What about the minimum age?

In this book, it is not age that is as relevant as much as it is the likelihood of having acquired skill, knowledge, experience, proficiency and wisdom to perform in such a responsible and comprehensive capacity. Likewise, it is suggested that voters would be well-served to require candidates to produce certifiable evidence that they are of high intelligence because the job surely demands it. How much time must one invest to demonstrate the capacity for being an effective leader of large and complex enterprises?

Relevance in Understanding the President’s Job Model

What is the job description for the job of president? In the book, the subject is addressed as the president’s job model. The concept of modeling jobs was derived from performance management science that was developed by AT&T in the 1970s in concert with numerous consultants and academics for the purpose of engineering precise performance from the combination of people and technology. That foundation served for continuous development with the advancement of computer technology and understanding about the management of work.

Performance analysis and modeling techniques were applied to identify the six primary tasks performed by Presidents of the United States. Academics and laymen voters are encouraged to continue to verify and validate the accuracy of these tasks and to assess their relevant importance.

Here is the current hypothesis.

A presidential candidate should be knowledgeable about and sufficiently experienced in enterprise performance improvement initiatives, preferably with successful past performance on the resume. This experience can be from public or private sectors. Continuous improvement in a democratic form of government comes from the following:

• Changing, amending, and retiring and replacing present laws


• Issuing presidential directives and memos communicating policies and policy guidance

• Administering directives and memos as they too require changing, amending, retiring, and replacing


• Strategic planning


• Budgeting and funding requests


All of these things are a product of the president’s management approach and government processes and routines governing them.

Proposed is that the first and most important presidential task is staffing, organizing and scheduling the executive branch work of government. In retrospect, the community organizing skills possessed by President Barack Obama were most significant and relevant. However, a president must also have a robust network of associates and allies from which to recruit and staff executive positions. Having a recruiting universe of qualified candidates (those who can readily obtain security clearances) for all of the government department and agency executive positions is an essential requirement.

Furthermore, an effective chief executive leverages the appointed staff as a multiplier on their effectiveness by selecting individuals who are more knowledgeable about specific areas of government than the commander-in-chief.

The Commander-in-chief is the top executive and is also the top expert in Constitutional law about which the incumbent is the leading executive implementer and often author of new and amended legislation. Presidents perform the following tasks:

• Task 1: Planning, staffing, organizing, and scheduling Presidential work and government functions

o Subtask 1.1: Recruit and staff the cabinet and department and agency appointments

o Subtask 1.2: Conduct cabinet meetings to develop and implement strategies and policies for accomplishing the nation’s workload and issues

o Subtask 1.3: Define the nation’s outcomes