What took you so long?

Even though my first memory involving a U.S. president is watching Richard Nixon resign —which, admittedly, forever tainted my view of every politician, at every level — I have always held a high level of respect for the office of the presidency.

I want to believe the president of my country is a good man. Oops, make that good person, because naturally I hold out hope/belief that someday (sooner than later), a woman will be president. Even though most of the women I know are so adept at the amount of multitasking that is required of them on any given day that I fear most of them would be bored stiff by many of the the duties that go along with being the president of the United States.

I cling to the hope that the person we elect as president will be intelligent and aware and compassionate. And moral.

I do not particularly care if the president happens to be religious. I have no idea how many of our presidents have been Christians, for example, or how many of those Christians have started each day by reading a Bible passage or two. I happen to believe that a belief in God (or some other supreme being) can provide a person with an inner strength that will withstand a whole hell of a lot of some of the bad stuff that life can throw her way ... and yes, I am talking about myself here, as usual.

I also do not care for name-calling when it comes to the president because I believe it is, in turn, disrespectful to the office of the presidency. A friend of mine constantly referred to a former president as “Bozo,” and though I agreed that this particular president had a tendency to make some questionable choices, it seemed, in regard to his personal life, I just found the name-calling rather silly. Much like something you would get in trouble for doing in 1st grade or have happen to you, yourself, in 4th grade and realize, rather quickly that there really was not any point to it. When you were a kid and then, later, once you were an adult.

At this moment, I still have a high level of respect for the office of the presidency. I also want, very much, to respect the person in that office and refrain from being overly critical because I want to believe that President Bush (or whoever might happen to be in there) is doing his absolute best, at all times. I mean, it would not be a whole lot of fun to have people constantly criticizing your work.

I do know that, for a fact; and besides, who knows? I might be president myself, someday! Would I want someone — or, more likely, millions of someones — critiquing my every move? Of course not!

: )

I also know that, as a citizen of this country, I cannot hold the president personally responsible for every “bad thing” that occurs in the United States, just as I would not give him an inordinate amount of props for all the good. The blame or credit usually goes to the people of this great nation, individually and as a whole.

I will say this, however: President Bush’s response to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina is a defining moment in his career as president.

Yes, there are other questions to be asked: Why were emergency plans not put into effect quicker, once anyone had any inkling the storm could strike the Gulf Coast? I mean, I knew days in advance; don’t the people in charge watch The Weather Channel? Once it became obvious Katrina was going to hit, why weren’t people mandatorily evacuated? And if people weren’t willing to go: Where were the members of the National Guard to give them some encouragement and, ultimately, an escort out of town?

And once the storm hit, and the devastation was widespread, and I watched TV images that made me do a double-take, every time, because I thought I was watching scenes from a Third World country instead of from places LESS THAN 700 MILES AWAY: What took the president so damn long to step up and take control of the situation as our Commander-in-Chief?

In my gradebook, President Bush gets an F-minus.