The Politics of Being President

Americans aren't nearly as political as others in the world. Sure, you, personally, may care about Presidential politics. Maybe you think that Hillary's vote for war against Iraq automatically disqualifies her as President. Perhaps there are more subtle issues, such as their views on monetary policy.

However, many Americans find, as long as they can get on with the merry day-to-day lives, that politics can wait.

At one point, there were about eight candidates each on running for the Democratic and Republican nominee. These numbers seem too large to care about, and yet, many a fan of American Idol manages to track, in two hours a week, at least as many singers, already singling out who they like, and hoping their favorite makes it one more week.

In the meanwhile, the media also tries to find who is a front-runner. For the Democrats, it was Hillary, Barack and John Edwards. For the Republicans, the field was larger, and included Giuliani, Romney, McCain, Huckabee, and Fred Thompson. When McCain was left for dead a year ago, and each of Giuliani, Romney, and Huckabee has flaws, Fred Thompson joined the fray, hoping that another former actor would rise to the top of Republican favorites, only to be cast with the image that he simply didn't care enough.

Huckabee also came from nowhere to do quite well in Iowa, then mainly did well with the evangelicals.

But let's go back to Hillary and Obama. Both vote nearly the same, except, of course, with the war on Iraq, which, for some, is enough to swing their opinions to Obama. But those that love Obama and equally despite Hillary see personality as the separator. Obama insprires. Hillary does not.

It goes to show the kind of President you have to be when television follows you everywhere. Once upon a time, you could have the social skill of an anteater, but if you could make solid decisions, and show enough leadership, then it didn't matter if most of the people in the country barely knew what you looked like, and certainly didn't know what you sounded like.

These days, it doesn't hurt to speak well. Of course, it didn't help Romney, who look well-groomed, and very polished. Somehow, perhaps due to Huckabee, McCain managed to get back to the stage where he had been so many years ago, when he battled George W, only before a smear campaign left McCain wounded, and eventually out of the race. So McCain bided his time, did what the Bush-ites wanted him to do, and even as it looked awful for him, he came back, and now looks solid as the Republican nominee.

Of course, in the meanwhile, a few devoted fans rang the praises of Ron Paul, hoping his Libertarian message would be heard far and wide, found that if the media chooses to ignore someone, they will be ignored. Were there special articles about Paul showing his support? He raised more money than his Republican co-runners. But, the media rather exacerbates the difference, trying to push the leaders far ahead, and sweep the insignificant to obscurity.

Why should the media, in their estimation, help out a candidate that's barely registering name recognition? But is not the goal of the media to give votes the best information they can, rather than handicap the horse race the presidential election always reduces itself to? Apparently not. They, too, get caught up in numbers. Who's leading? Who's dropping out?

And why? Because they understand the average person cares only about the race, and thus, the Presidential race. The positions on this policy and that, they don't think about so much, which is why the Republicans have always favored a pretty naive platform of "Don't raise taxes!". Year after year, this bankrupt ideology trots out the same idea, and it appeals to folks a lot, because dadgum, no one really knows how to save.

We all spend to excess, unhappy if we can't have the goodies our neighbors do. Possessions becomes our elixir, and Americans are plenty caught up in it. So tax relief seems good, except the truly wealthy want it even more. They know, so they think, how better to spend their wealth, caring very little for those who make it on paycheck to paycheck.

Let's not forget that politics is all about trying to cast your best face forward. Ron Paul has a tough time doing that. He's trying to stick to his principles, and when you do that, it's tough to say yes to everyone. When Hillary is asked if she's ever thought she is losing, she says she never thinks it. The media wants her to show weakness, and yet, the candidate must show strength, and so she yields no ground. Of course, she's never thought she would lose. We Americans won't stand for anyone who doesn't have confidence in themselves.

Once upon a time, we said politicians all lie, and to some extent, they do because they want people to vote for them, and it's hard to have a policy that everyone can agree to.

Stances don't seem to matter much. Once someone is roughly what you want, then it becomes the intangibles. Their personality. Their vision. That seems to matter a lot, perhaps more than it should.