I want Barack Obama to be our next President, but I honestly have no idea if he’ll be any good at the job.  I think he will and I hope he will, but I don’t know.  You never know about these things.

I don’t think either candidate done anything before to actually prepare them for the job.  To liken being President to anything else is ludicrous.  This is true to some degree for every head of state, but for a superpower the pressure is endless.  You don’t “finish work” as President, you just call it a day.  Your issues truly are global, the “the” issues.  There is the American worker, the economy, the infrastructure, the war on terror, the war in Iraq, the environment, the stock market, the mortgage crisis, the Congress, the list goes on when you run the show.  So no, I can’t say based on Barack Obama’s experience that he’d be a great President, although I think he will.  By the way, I can’t say John McCain would be any good, either.  I go by exhibited judgment on the major issues and there Barack Obama has been clearly superior.  However, it’s only a suggestion.  I think you need a variety of factors to make my list.

What I want in my ideal Presidential candidate is a mix.  I want someone who has aspired to the job for a long time.  I know, but hear me out.  I want someone who has thought about themselves in that grand, global way and has imagined him or herself as President.  Yes, I want an elitist (by the way, both candidates qualify in that category).  I want someone smart.  Really smart.  The President will have to solve problems at a level and of a complexity which is beyond me and most other people and I want that person smart enough to do the job.  I want a good speaker and good writer.  The President should be able to communicate in a clear, inspiring, persuasive fashion.  I want a good athlete, believe it or not, or someone with clear musical ability.  I want the inner well of confidence that comes with athletic or musical ability.  I want my President to shine from the inside and the outside.  I also want a handsome person, for the same reasons.  Handsome people are more confident and if they are politically sensitive, can use that confidence to get things done.  Finally, I want them to have acted presidential long before they ever actually ran.

Some of my qualities may seem superficial, but remember we’re talking politics.  The smartest person in the room might not be patient enough to get all sides to agree.  Politics is the practice of the dark art of compromise which frankly gives me the creeps.  But the best practitioners need skills large and small.

By my metrics, not a lot of folks make the grade.  John Kennedy is an automatic pick.  So is George Bush senior.  W, by comparison is a poor speaker and poor writer and doesn’t seem bright at all.  No athletic or musical influence.  His dad was Phi Beta Kappa, a fighter pilot and captain of the Yale baseball team.  Ronald Reagan was a gifted speaker and writer who really could communicate, even if the message was wrong.  He’s an automatic pick.  Bill Clinton had all the dreams and the appearance of communication skills.  He makes the grade even if he invented himself. 

As for this year’s crop, McCain is a good looking guy who has the inner well of confidence which accompanies being a fighter pilot.  But he’s a weak writer, an ordinary speaker and he just doesn’t qualify in one other important way.  He didn’t set high standards for himself.  He was a slacker.  It’s no accident that he led his class in demerits and graduated near the bottom at Annapolis.  He didn’t care about excellence.  It happens with children of privilege.  Children of privilege have what I call the “Rolodex Advantage.”  It means that because of who you are, you’re a phone call away from rich and powerful people who will help you.  John McCain came from military privilege and he had a leg up.  But it doesn’t qualify you to be President