Exercising Good Judgment

IF CHARACTER DOESN'T MATTER in the selection of the American president, and it certainly doesn't seem to, then judgment certainly does. On this account, the red flags are already flying high, a mere month before the new president assumes office. A piece of American property is stolen by a foreign power in international waters, and the president elect tells them to keep it. There are at least two problems with this suggestion. First, criminal activity should not be rewarded. The bank robber must return the stolen money. When criminal activity is unpunished, it only increases. Aside from that, to have told the Chinese to keep the "aqua drone" would not only have made America appear weak, it would have revealed America to be weak. Besides, can we say "reverse engineering"? Obama's solution was better: demand the return of the property. Then there is the matter of Russian hacking into American computers, attempting to influence the election. For an incoming president to publicly disrespect his nation's intelligence gathering agencies before even assuming office is arguably poor judgment. At the very least, Trump should have said: "although we do not yet know for certain whether the findings of the CIA and other agencies are correct, we must take them seriously, and further investigations and deliberation are called for, and, in the event that indeed Russian hacking activity is confirmed,must be dealt with firmly." Surely, that statement would have been preferable to calling the findings "ridiculous". One can only wish the new president the best of luck in securing the respect and full cooperation of the intelligence gathering community over the next four years. Being given a thorough briefing by national security experts each day seems, for the president of the United Stats, perfectly reasonable. No, the daily briefings are not the same every day, as Trump alleges; each day there are new developments, according to former national security officials, and the president needs to and should be briefed daily, not just when he sees fit, or when he suspects that there is something new to report. It may not matter whether an American president is a sex offender, or a scam artist, or assumes office with an entangling set of conflicts of interest, as it apparently does not, but it matters whether he or she has good judgment on matters of national security and international diplomacy.