Even the Founding Fathers knew that they developed a system with flaws.  Called "a government ill executed" by Alexander Hamilton, the imperfections of America's political system left by the Framers of the Constitution 219 years ago have forced today's federal government into a political quicksand. And according to Professor Paul C. Light, the next President is not only going to have to address current issues, but the format of the government as a whole if our country is to survive.

Light, a professor at New York University's Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service, wrote a piece for the Washington Post last week entitled "Can't-Do Government."  In the article, the professor describes the federal government as at its worst in the past six months.

"Consider the controversies over contaminated tomatoes and meat, tainted toys, toxic trailers, counterfeit Heparin, aircraft groundings, veterans' care, missing warheads and unrelenting contract fraud," Light said.  "For every NASA success on the surface of Mars, there seems to be a failure back on Earth."

Each of these situations is not an isolated, random occurrence.  According to Light, each is connected and is a sign of America's weakening governmental system.  And the evidence starts all the way at the top of the chain of command.

The next President isn't just going to need to remedy these situations when they claim their office.  They're going to need to appoint almost 3,000 political executives and oversee at least 64 discrete titles including associate deputy secretaries, deputy associate secretaries, and yes, even assistant secretaries.  

The next President is also going to be the head of the federal workforce, a group of people increasingly frustrated and demoralized.  With little pay and few resources, today's federal workers are essentially "doing everything with almost nothing."  And once the baby boomers begin to retire, a huge chunk of employees will be gone.  And with such poor working conditions, who would want to replace them?

Finally, the next president will be in charge of an invisible workforce of 7.6 million contractors.  And as the number of large contracts has increased and competition has declined, "it has become nearly impossible to reward or hold contractors accountable for their work, whether on the streets of Baghdad or on the space shuttle launch pad," claims Light.

All of this is really too much for one man, don't you think?

The United States already has a lot of work to do abroad, to fix its global reputation and clean up disasters like the war in Iraq.  But a lot of fixing needs to be done domestically as well. The next President of the United States must not treat the series of federal failures as a series of unrelated events, but instead as a weakening of the system that must be restructured to stand strong.