Vetting presidential candidates

The process of vetting presidential candidates in America is historically ad hoc and accomplished by American institutions that include:

1. Political parties
2. The press
3. The voting public
4. Electoral College
5. Law enforcement agencies at every level

The book, How to Select an American President by James A. George and James A. Rodger (c) 2016 Archway Publishing, suggests a process for voters, political parties, and candidates for presenting their resumes for evaluation, validating and verification.

Political parties have a responsibility to endorse and approve candidates bearing their brand. That includes ensuring that the candidates are free of conflicts of interest and of any legal impediments that include Constitutional minimums and more. "The more" part is ensuring that taxes are paid and that the presidential candidate would pass musters for obtaining the highest security clearance. That would require a background check.

The Electoral College is the last institution standing between a president-elect and becoming a sitting president.

Because president-elect Trump has not been forthcoming with his IRS filings and because he appears to have conflicts of interest with Russian entities through his associates, if not directly, the Electoral College must ask for a briefing by the CIA and FBI to ensure that Mr. Trump has no conflicts or impediments.

Much more work needs to be accomplished by political parties to improve the process.

"IS DONALD TRUMP EVEN VETTING HIS CABINET PICKS? 

His two latest rumored appointees suggest that loyalty and image, not qualifications, matter most to Trump. 

BY ABIGAIL TRACY 

NOVEMBER 23, 2016 11:20 AM" 

http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/11/donald-trump-cabinet-vetting-process

Getty Image/ Vanity Fair

Trump, emboldened by ignorance

Apparently, President-elect Donald Trump shoots from the hip and is emboldened by ignorance. From observing his behavior throughout years of campaigning and television performances, Trump's personality is no secret. Being brash and arrogant on a tv show, or being that way in his company, he is accountable only to him. 

A sitting President has more responsibility and is expected to act with preparedness, armed with knowledge and facts about situations before acting. That is not his style.

Trump is a dangerous President because he exposes the nation to significant risk resulting from his temperament and deficient command of the facts before acting.

He attacked the Boeing Company with allegations about the high cost of two new presidential jets before he had the facts. Now, he is doing the same by attacking Lockheed Martin over the expense of the Joint Strike Fighter. It is not bad for a President to review high-cost profile programs. However, he is not yet sworn into office. He and his staff have not had the opportunity to study the situations. He is just "mouthing off."

He is also Tweeting to the Chinese about his opinions that do not yet change American policy. He may think that it is diplomatic negotiating, yet, his actions are premature and unprofessional. If he acts like a one-man band, he will mount a heap of trouble not just for himself, but for the nation. That is worrisome.

Add to that; he attacked the intelligence community.

Oh, and he is still at war with the Republican Party. Trump is a divider, not a uniter. It surely appears that he is leading with ignorance, and that is basically how the Chinese summed it up.

"Trump targets Lockheed Martin's F-35 fighter jet costs 

Donald Trump on Monday criticized Lockheed Martin's F-35 fighter jet program as too expensive, the latest attack by the U.S. President-elect on large defense contractors." 

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-lockheed-idUSKBN1411HF?il=0

"The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence" Carl Sagan

'Ignorant as a child' say the Chinese

How to make Democrats a winner

While leading Democrats wrestle in real time with lessons learned from the Hillary disaster, they won't want to hear that this is a large problem requiring a longer view and process to engineer a fix. The word "engineer" is purposeful as it implies skilled and artful crafting based on having performed an audit of the Democratic Party processes and organization.

Winning the presidency is not necessarily a win for the party. Obama proved that. He won based on organizing skills and intellectual brute force. He won by winning hearts and minds with smooth talk. His policies and actions rescued the economy and nation from certain disaster.

However, the Democratic Party failed to hold control of the Congress. It failed in the district and state trenches to gain confidence in their competence to manage communities. All politics are local, and Democrats forgot that.

Obama didn't help the party by establishing Obama for America (OFA) either. That side-brand usurped the clout of the Democratic Party host. Subbranding dilutes the national political organization.

Along the way, the Democratic Party's leadership, such as Deborah Wasserman Schultz, failed to do what the party needed her to accomplish. First, she needed to deliver Florida. Second, she needed to deliver women. Third, she needed to provide minorities of all kinds. She failed.

A short article cannot provide all that the party needs to address, but it can point to several things:

1. Produce superior qualified candidates by a new higher standard. (Define that)

2. Produce a superior platform to which constituents and candidates can align with confidence (Define that too)

3. Audit the entire Democratic Party processes and organization from top to bottom. (Hire a performance auditor)

"Dems grapple with lessons from Clinton disaster
BY NIALL STANAGE - 12/12/16 06:00 AM EST

Democrats are grappling with how to draw the right lessons — and avoid the wrong ones — after an extraordinary presidential election. 

Hillary Clinton’s loss to Donald Trump is an unmitigated disaster for Democrats, who want to ensure nothing like it happens again. But Clinton’s popular-vote lead over Trump is so large that it complicates the question of how to recalibrate for future elections.
Clinton led Trump by almost 3 million votes as of Sunday, according to a Cook Political Report tracker, with some final results still to be tabulated. More than 128 million votes were cast for the two main candidates nationwide, and Trump emerged as the victor by winning three Rust Belt states by margins of roughly 11,000 (Michigan), 23,000 (Wisconsin) and 44,000 (Pennsylvania).” 

http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/309483-dems-grapple-with-lessons-from-clinton-disaster

James George, Author and Independent Journalist

How to Select an American President: Call for a new election

How to Select an American President: Call for a new election: The evidence likely shows and confirms that the Russians and WikiLeaks interfered in Election 2106 with criminal acts and with the intent t...

Call for a new election

The evidence likely shows and confirms that the Russians and WikiLeaks interfered in Election 2106 with criminal acts and with the intent to change the outcome of a free election. Interference came several ways:

1. Hacking and leaks
2. Fake news and propaganda
3. Hacking and attempts to manipulate voting results

When candidate Donald Trump directly called for interference by Russians to act on his behalf, that act crossed the line to make him a collaborator. His continued praise for Vladimir Putin reinforces bad behavior. Furthermore, Trump's personal conflicts of interest remain a secret because he has failed to make his IRS filings public.

Actions and alternatives lie ahead. One action would be for the Electoral College to void the election. Another would be for the Electoral College to seat the winner of the popular vote. Neither of those alternatives is as clean as having another vote.

If the court agrees that the process has become hopelessly flawed by manipulation, then perhaps the entire election should be done again including all of the Senators and House Members since their elections were also swayed by a corrupted presidential election.

This is no longer pie-in-the-sky conjecture because the charges and findings are deadly serious.

"Ex-CIA operative: We may need a new vote 

Former CIA Operative Robert Baer says if the CIA can prove that Russia interfered with the 2016 election then the US should vote again.Source: CNN" 

http://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2016/12/10/robert-baer-new-election-russia-hacking-nr.cnn

Do it again.

How to Select an American President: State of the Union Epiphany

How to Select an American President: State of the Union Epiphany: I had an epiphany after having written the first draft of a new book. It goes back to a book that I published in 2010, Smart Data, Enterpris...

State of the Union Epiphany

I had an epiphany after having written the first draft of a new book. It goes back to a book that I published in 2010, Smart Data, Enterprise Performance Optimization Strategy, (c) Wiley Publishing. In that work, Dr. Rodger and I advocated the creation of a U.S. President's Performance Management Dashboard. The dashboard would provide performance metrics, aggregated from all of the programs and service initiatives under the Departments and Agencies of government such that the President and Congress can see metrics at any level that they desire. It is absurd that the federal government doesn't have such a thing already, but it doesn't.

If it did, then the State of the Union would be readily available for all to see at any point in time. The epiphany part is that the State of the Union report from Presidents is probably not delivered always at the right time.

The U.S. Constitution is rather casual about it.

"The formal basis for the State of the Union Address is from the U.S. Constitution: The President “shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.” Article II, Section 3, Clause 1."

Historically, it has been an annual message, of a sort.

Think about it. A new President arrives in January. Would it not have been useful to have a State of the Union report from a credible system having been delivered, say in October, before the national election? That way voters can evaluate the past performance and understand the stepping stone to the next administration.

The next government could be a continued incumbency for a second term. Or, it could be a new presidency.

The dashboard and its metrics would be inherited for the next incumbent to assume control to produce new metrics.

Having a standard system and approach would ensure continuity in accountability. Now, that does not mean that the dashboard would not change. In fact, the contents would reflect the actions of the Executive and Congress at changing and amending legislation, funding, and schedules. Otherwise, it must be dynamic and accountable for real-time results.

A Presidential Dashboard is a management tool for which the results are the U.S. Government Performance Dashboard that should be available and accessible by Congress and the citizens with some caveats particular to national security.