With the caucuses finishing up in Iowa and the unforeseen results of the event, many people have talked about this as being the most important election in the history of the United States. While I do believe these people are right about the importance of the election, I believe their expectations of the Republican candidates are high; maybe a little too high.

They are right that this is, in fact, an important election because there is a lot riding on the future of our country, but isn’t that how every election is? I read a bumper sticker that read, “You have to endure four years of Carter to get to Reagan.” Initially I laughed at the concept of it, but as I thought more about it I realized it wasn’t entirely correct. Are people really comparing perhaps the worst president in history to just a plainly mediocre president? And are we really going to get our hopes up so high that the next Republican president is going to be even half as great as Reagan?

Let’s first look at the views of President Obama. Although I personally believe that we cannot judge a president’s effectiveness on a country until years and years down the line, I do believe Obama to be perhaps the worst president I will see in my lifetime. To compare him to Carter seems a little forgiving. I also believe that if he is re-elected our country will be unrecognizable as a free, capitalist country. Perhaps it was just the wrong timing for him. Regardless I believe everyone can agree he was given a lose-lose situation: First, as being elected president, in general, of possibly the most influential country in the world, and second, running and being elected in a terrible recession. Let’s be honest here, no matter who took office, the economy would have to go through the cycle that all economies go through, but he certainly didn’t help any with making the cycle move along at all. And let’s not get started on Obama-care; that was doomed to ruin his presidency from its conception.

To compare the front runners of the Republican campaign to Reagan, one of the best presidents to take office, is just cruel to everyone involved. No matter how much a person tries, to put that kind of expectation on a candidate is setting yourself up for disappointment. Will the next president be a great one? Who can say? Will the next person to take the oath of office do anything nearly as great as Reagan? Chances are he won’t even compare. Reagan was a revolutionary president whose reforms led to a country of renewed prosperity and hope and to expect that the next guy is going to do the same thing is a little zealous.

So what should we hope for in our next president? We can only hope that they stay true to the promises the people voted him in to office for, but we all know that will lead to disappointment as well. Maybe we can just hope for someone to start at the long process of getting us out of this crazy debt. Maybe we can just hope that the next person will be able to lead a legacy for the next few presidencies to follow and start to relinquish debt and improve the lives of Americans with common sense fiscal solutions. That may seem a lot like Reagan, but the difference is Reagan had follow-through, clearly a quality we should look for as the selection process for the Republican candidate continues if we want any good to come from anyone.

Putting Reagan-sized expectations on our candidates is only going to lead to a long line of disappointment. But to put reasonable expectations of common sense lawmaking, spending and governing will allow a president to obtain greatness and perhaps that is the only way to truly get to a Reagan-esque leadership and find prosperity and real hope again.