Choose Wisely

Most People in the U. S. don't realize how important getting the right President is. Sure, the President gets blamed for a lot of things that he or she can't control. The Prez does not control the stock market or the Federal Reserve. But the reality is that the Founding Fathers, having no real previous experience of democracy or a republic and having lived under a monarchy thier whole fucking lives, created a temporary king to run a country. They were at heart monarchists. They just didn't like the current one and didn't want to make it hereditary.
So every few years we elect a king. Since people like consistency, we tend to elect the same king as many times as we can get away with. And the king, especially in any sort of emergency, has a lot of power. They don't alawys, or even most of the time, have enough to fix things right away. But they've got a lot of power.
Including the power to totally screw things up...
...When you choose a king, forget most of the reasons you think you should vote for the king. Mostly, the king can't do much about the economy but ruin it. They can't make you richer or smarter (although they can manage the reverse). If you want one suggestion, think about all the contingencies under which that king may hold your lives in his or her hands. And choose wisely...
John Ringo, The Last Centurion, Baen Books, 2008, p.38-9.

Well today Barak Obama gets sworn in, and for the next four years, for better or worse, he IS the President. Now we get to see if those who voted for him chose wisely...