Was being the leader of a country always a shitty job? It is said that POTUS is one of the most unpleasant jobs imaginable: you get basically no free time, have to have a very tight schedule, multitask 24/7 and it's extremely stressful due to smartasses criticizing your every move and others asking for stupid favors. It's a wonder there are even people who want to take it.
Did historical leaders have it easier? Maybe this has to do with the fact that the president is an elected official, so maybe dictators can actually do what they want and enjoy their power. But dictators also have to worry about their underlings assassinating them, so probably even they have to work their asses of to please them.
Post whatever info or thought you have about historical leaders and whether they had an easy life on top or not.
You're comparing a picture from 2007 to a picture from 2016. He's getting older and that's why he's graying out. Not saying his job isn't stressful as fuck but his current appearance is most likely simply due to aging
Carson Wilson
/mostly this. It's he entered the dreaded period in a mans life called his 40s and just shows it harder due to stress.
Nicholas Long
I guess being a US president nowadays is much more intense than ever before because of the world police aspect of it. Then again, a man with alzheimer's held that position not so long ago.
Gabriel Collins
Aging that much in 8 years isn't normal. This is a trend that can be seen in every modern president.
Dylan Gomez
His hair graying was already news in what, 2009?
Parker White
JUST
Jacob Green
Some families have two dads, and that's okay.
Liam Turner
Job aren't made to be pleasant, particularly such a high office.
Henry Moore
Being the ruler of a country is almost never easy. It's only easy, if you're a figurehead and let your cabinet/inner circle/court do everything.
Jacob Stewart
>no free time Bush took over 400 vacation days.
Michael Watson
it's shitty because you are the #1 person to blame once something goes wrong, even if it is out of the President's control.
A single person making it through airport security with ill intentions will be the President's mistake, a financial bubble caused by banks distributing toxic loans will be the president's fault, etc. It's to the point where the President's job is simply to kick the shitcan down the road for another 4-8 years and hope it doesn't all come undone during their term.
That is a tremendous amount of pressure to be under, especially so since you have far less control over all facets of society than the public thinks the president does.
Levi Reyes
Yes, it's super stressful.
Yes, a man in his 40s and 50s will visibly age in 8 years.
Wait till you see Trump in 2020.
Benjamin Davis
Well presumably Obama was more stressed than usual because he was cucked by Republicans at home and China, Isis and Russia abroad
Jeremiah Hughes
obama and Dubya were just at that sweet spot right before office where you age massively anyway
look at a president like Reagan that went in old already he didn't exactly leave looking much older
trump won't come out looking much worse than he looked going in
Adrian Sanchez
I wouldn't say being a political authority has ever been easy (unless you're a particularly shit ruler who's negligent to everyone else's needs but your own), but at least in some parts of the ancient world it came with a few more luxuries to balance out the looming potential for disaster that could spring up at any given time. The big difference is nowadays the scale of disaster's grown infinitely larger in many respects, and the few luxuries the position does afford are pretty shallow by contrast.
Robert Peterson
>Wait till you see Trump in 2020. nigger wont last a year
Benjamin Gonzalez
Reagan? He didn't have symptoms when he was in office. Unless you're trying to be snappy about his policies.
Hunter Edwards
Arguably the President chooses how much work he truly HAS to do. Trump could be a model for that. The President can easily be a ceremonial figure if he chooses to, and can give up lots of his executive power to others.
This was even more true back in the early Presidency. George Washington was particularly hands off. The pre-Civil War period presidents (after Jackson before Lincoln) are known for being particularly figurehead-ish and Congress was very strong. As the Executive branch was strengthened under Lincoln and again under FDR, and again under LBJ, the responsibilities of the President have compounded. Simply compare the number of executive departments. 3 in 1789, 15 now. Also holy fuck the Department of Homeland Security has 4 million employees. I guess TSA falls under their umbrella.
All in all I'd say it's harder being a ruler nowadays but there were more temptations to do evil back in the day, so there's that.
Samuel Miller
>super photogenic probably shooped portrait used for official purposes >vs a random photograph of them when totally unprepared and probably bored or tired
James Allen
>democracy iz gud everything else iz bad!!!!!! materialism!!!!!
Jaxon Powell
It's way shittier now. Biden was talking at the first meeting for the cancer project about how when he was younger, the big issues like nukes were things you could go and have experts explain each part from manufacture to global strategy, and get a picture of the whole thing. It used to just be the economy where politicians kind of had to cross their fingers and try something, but it's cancer, cyberwar, the environment all more complex than any one person can handle.
Noah Richardson
Thats why being Speaker of the House is a waaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy better gig
Christopher King
>elected in 2008 >Presidential picture is from 2007
Conspiracy?
Lucas Moore
>posting that moron
Cooper Rivera
Putin looks great.
Ayden Bennett
>flabby manlet >great
You can do better, faganon.
Luke Stewart
He works out, gets botox, and has very little hair, so it's not noticeable. >flabby I think he looks good for his age.
Thomas Green
Rulers in ancient days had more leisure time and didnt need to be ruling 24/7. If you were really lazy you could even delegate to ministers like alot of decadent emperors used to do.
In all honesty I think the role of President and really all major cabinet positions have gotten way too complex for one person to get a handle on. I think there are only a very limited number of people who could handle it and those that do prob would rather make money.
Whats stopping a President from making a couple vice presidents?
Jason Bailey
but VP's dont do anything but the fun shit (unless theyre evil shadow presidents). the president can delegate many things to his secretaries of departments.
Tyler Murphy
Reagan supposedly spent most of his second term watching movies because he went senile. Bush got overshadowed by Cheney. There's a great degree of flexibility to the position when it comes to how much work you can expect to delegate apparently.
Ethan Hall
Again, the constitutionally designated duties of the President are actually very few. He has to sign or veto bills. Appoint people to federal offices. Commander in chief. Ceremonial figurehead. That's it.
The endless work of the modern presidency is modern innovation and can easily be undone if a President wants to.
--Mr. President, it's time for us to fly to France to give your speech at so-and-so international conference...
--Cancel.
Even then it's not that much work. He has an army of advisers and researchers. A couple of hours before the conference on his fucking luxury plane he reads the bullet points his advisers have prepared from him and memorizes a short speech. Hangs out with world leaders for a few hours and parrots what he's told to say. Done.
Ironically, the sheer massiveness of the job has actually diluted what the President himself alone can do. In the days when it was Washington buddying it up with the grand total of like 50 federal employees he had a lot more influence. Now the President is an administrative figure. The very phrase "administration" communicates the difference. He's not governing, he's "administrating".
Levi Ortiz
A year.
Cameron Jenkins
Being the president probably isn't that much more difficult than a normal office job if you ask me, the only difference is that everything he signs with his pen is either an order for the military to bomb someone, or an order to the police to enforce a new law.
