Arguing again for a six-year president

Seeing George W. Bush in office for two terms was quite numbing. This is a perfect example of the importance of a proposal that fell on deaf ears many years ago, that having presidents elected for only one 6-year term.

The rationale included the fact that:

• A president spends 1½ years of the first 4-year term learning how to be president.

• A president spends the last year of that term campaigning to win a second term if he or she chooses to run again.

• A president spends 2½ to three years doing the job in the second term.

• A president is a "lame duck" for the last year to 1½ years of that last term.

Thus, we might get a total of three to four quality years out of eight where a president is doing the job for our country.

Under a 6-year term:

• A president again spends the first one to 1½ years learning the job.

• The last one to 1½ years the president is also a "lame duck."

• We get three to four years of a president doing the job for our country.

• But we get two fewer years of seeing the same smirk when the president is asked an intelligent question.

Mark Lind | Algonquin