Both sides are highlighting their policy differences, leadership styles and vision in order to convince as many voters as possible to join with them. So this election would appear to present such striking differences that the outcome of one candidate or the other would be equally striking.
While many differences obviously exist and many are indeed important, I believe that no matter who is elected the president will be an embattled leader who will be known simply as a caretaker president.
Many of us want to embrace the differences between the candidates and believe our choice as president can right our ship engulfed in global economic and military crises. The candidates themselves confirm this view by pointing to their different ways to change the tax system, to fix the economic crisis and to end the wars in the Middle East.
Unfortunately for these candidates, the next president will not be able to solve these problems. Indeed, the next president will not have the power or the authority to affect the necessary global change. Our country, indeed the world, is faced with a unique configuration of global forces (the perfect storm) that will take years to move toward a more stable and secure world.
The economic crisis is not simply an American problem, but through globalization we are deeply connected to the national economic and monetary policies of Europe and Asia. The solutions to our energy and food crises are similarly beyond our reach without the cooperation and intervention by other countries, international organizations and businesses.
Nowhere does the power of an individual president show a greater vulnerability than in our wars in the Middle East. Such protracted conflicts illustrate the magnitude of the problems the next president will face in years to come.
Essentially, the president has control over many important levers, but the current combination of global economic, political and military crises cannot be contained nor controlled by one individual.
We are all aware of globalization, but the current era of globalization has taken on new urgency. Today's globalization is not the previous view of nearly automatic international cooperation or a unified vision of our collective future. Current globalization is highlighted by accelerated change and the key challenge to all of us is how quickly and how effectively we will respond to that change.
Globalization in today's world is marked by increasing divisions, conflicts and different collective identities. But what does unify different nations and people is the common quest for personal security and economic well-being.
I am confident that our various crises eventually will be solved or at least stabilized in the coming years. But the next president first must patch together a very vulnerable and unsteady alliance of governments, societies and businesses that must struggle together in order to sail through our "perfect storm."
I do not envy whoever is elected president. Unfortunately, this person will serve as a transitional president during very unstable and uneasy times. The best we can hope for during the next four or eight years is the avoidance of even worse global catastrophes.
The next president's job is to minimize the impact of the current crises on our society and then to hand over the reins of power to the next president who, I believe, will emerge triumphant as a leader of a more stable and secure society.
Winner Tuesday will not have the power or the authority to affect the necessary change
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* HOWARD LEHMAN is associate professor of political science at the University of Utah.
