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Keller @ Large: What Do We Want From Our Next President?

BOSTON (CBS) - One year from today, we will have a new president.

And maybe it's a good idea for all of us to pause in the midst of the frantic contest to take that job to consider what it is we really want from our president these days.

There have been many times over the past fifty years when America has been ripe for something new.

Jimmy Carter's election in 1976, a reaction to DC corruption and Watergate; Ronald Reagan in 1980, a reaction to the Carter "malaise" years; Bill Clinton in 1992, an expression of fatigue with 12 years of Republican control; and Barack Obama in 2008, voted in by a war-weary, recession-wary electorate.

Presidents
Former presidents Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush and President Barak Obama on April 25, 2013 in Dallas, Texas. (Photo by Paul Morse/George W. Bush Presidential Center via Getty Images)

These presidents made winning coalitions out of anger with the status quo and hope for constructive change.

This time around, it's not quite so clear what people want.

For now, the three hottest campaigns seem based more on frustration and revenge than anything else.

To hear Bernie Sanders, Ted Cruz and Sarah Palin, in her Donald Trump endorsement tell it, there's nothing wrong with our country that a smackdown of evil banks, crony capitalists, and weak-kneed centrists can't cure.

While none of those groups are exactly above reproach, that all sounds more like a pro-wrestling script than a set of governing principles. And those time-worn American political complaints certainly aren't anything fresh or hopeful.

Meanwhile, the more stylistically and philosophically moderate candidates don't seem to know where to turn for traction, caught between being themselves and pandering for votes.

Once again, politics reflects the people.

Because we don't seem to know which way to turn either.

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