Comment by omginternets | Hacker News Reader

Comment by omginternets | Hacker News Reader

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I'm not sure I follow. If Lessig were to step down and hand power over to the vice president, then couldn't the vice president freely appoint a new cabinet?

Even if we got stuck with a crappy cabinet for four years, it would be survivable (see 2000 - 2004) and the good that would come out of fixing campaign corruption would be immeasurable.

>Further, if he is perceived as competent enough to do all that, why would I vote to hire him as chief executive of the nation when he has stated he is going to quit soon after he is elected?

Because he doesn't think he is competent to run the country; he thinks he's competent to fix a specific problem.

I just found out about this guy 10 minutes ago, but I very much welcome this kind of discourse and honestly wish there were more of it.

   If Lessig were to step down and hand power over
   to the vice president, then couldn't the vice
   president freely appoint a new cabinet?

Lessig would have to govern until he finished enacting his agenda. That could take years. Plus, selecting a good cabinet would off-load distractions from him, allowing him to focus more on his core objectives.

  Even if we got stuck with a crappy cabinet for
  four years, it would be survivable

A "survivable" term isn't the threshold I personally use when voting for candidates. :)

>A "survivable" term isn't the criteria I personally use for choosing presidents. :)

That's fair enough, but I would counter that:

1. We've been settling for "survivable" terms for the past 10 years

2. Some people will take a hit for the greater good. I really wish you would be willing to do that too. That said, maybe you don't think Lessig's agenda would be serving the greater good, in which case I'd be interested in knowing why.

I think his agenda is great. (I might quibble about things like ranked-choice versus approval voting, but that's immaterial for the moment.) I just think he's going to have to govern while trying to achieve that agenda, and I suspect he can do that successfully, so I'd like him to run for real rather than planning to quit after he's done.

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