Are You Looking For a Leader Or A Likable Candidate?

My wife and I were driving south on the highway Monday listening to shout radio. Shout radio is where you listen to show hosts giving their commentary on sound bites of people where the sound bites often have two people shouting on top of one another so that you can't really hear either of them. It's good fun in small doses.

But we were listening to a sound bite of Hillary Clinton before the New Hampshire primary answering a question about Barak Obama being more likable than she. To her credit she answered tongue in cheek saying, it hurt her feelings. Then she paused and said, "But I'll try and go on."

Then my wife eloquently shouted herself, at the air, "We're not voting for someone we like, we're voting for a leader. The American people are idiots, and you can quote me on that." So I did.

Because she is right. This election year, like so many others in its wake, sees candidates assigned handlers, image consultants, makeup artists, and stylists so as to present the very best pretense of a human being.

How many times have I heard references this year to, Mrs. Clinton's likeability factor or lack thereof? How many times have I been told how charming Barak is or how boring Fred Thompson is. With Clinton's showing in New Hampshire, many pundits are saying it was because of her melodramatic answer to a question about how she manages to get up each day and keep going in the face of her sliding popularity.

Many said her win in New Hampshire was because she finally connected "emotionally" with the voters. I fear they are right which makes me gag! Are we hiring a public relations Diva or a world leader? I couldn't care less how likable a candidate is if they have their head screwed on straight, and they are emotionally and physically tough enough for the grind as President.

And I don't care if they look particularly good on camera or whether or not they "look presidential." Is this the depth of the American public? Honestly, I have to say YES, it is. That's why we have mock debates which ask questions like, "How would you win the war on terror?" and you have 60 seconds to answer.

This nonsense has to stop--but it won't. For such have we become and we reap what we sow.