Hall: Seeking A Leader Just Like Me
Similarly, millions of voters during the presidential election said they preferred some of the lighter and less experienced candidates because he or she was "just like me." That disturbing declaration tended to temper my tendency to identify personally with several of the candidates. A troubling question came to mind: Do those who say they favor a given candidate because that candidate is "just like me" mean to imply that they are as smart as that particular candidate and equally qualified to be president? Or do they mean that we should all welcome a candidate as ordinary and inept as we are?/Bill Hall, Lewiston Tribune. Full column below.
Question: Would you want a president that was just like you?
Seeking a leader just like me
Sunday, January 25, 2009
During the months and years of the eternal 2008 presidential campaign I found myself tempted to agree with all those Americans who said they preferred a given candidate who was "just like me."
Similarly, I was tempted to vote for the best and brightest of the candidates because he or she was just like me, except maybe for being black or female.
I'm the same way about the movie stars nominated for this year's Academy Awards. I tend to tilt toward Brad Pitt for best actor because so many women mistake me for him. I'm rooting for him at the Oscars because he's just like me.
Similarly, millions of voters during the presidential election said they preferred some of the lighter and less experienced candidates because he or she was "just like me." That disturbing declaration tended to temper my tendency to identify personally with several of the candidates. A troubling question came to mind:
Do those who say they favor a given candidate because that candidate is "just like me" mean to imply that they are as smart as that particular candidate and equally qualified to be president?
Or do they mean that we should all welcome a candidate as ordinary and inept as we are?
The fact the question exists at all tends to confirm the indication that many voters don't think the presidency is all that difficult. It may demonstrate they think that solving the troubles of the world isn't a tough job.
Voters often indicate that they have less interest in the experience and smarts of a candidate than they do in the smiles, quips and clothing of the candidates.
We demand experience, brains and knowledge from our doctors, football coaches and pastry chefs. But in government, a sweet smile, a handsome face and a silver-tongued capacity to tell us the fibs we want to hear is enough to make most voters swoon and declare that a favorite candidate is "just like me."
We don't slide into the same sloppy judgments when choosing a doctor. And I'm typical. I don't want a doctor just like me. I want a serious, incredibly well trained medical genius to look after a body that reminds women of Brad Pitt.
In other words, I want the comforting competence of the doctor I have. I wouldn't go near a doctor who is just like me.
But somehow, running a nation is different from choosing a first-rate professional to tend to our health. When it comes to voting, many of us actually prefer "an idiot like me." We prefer someone who isn't the kind of irritating show-off who actually is smarter than we are.
On the other hand, wanting a candidate more like us isn't all wrong. People who vote for someone "just like me" are talking more about someone with the common touch who has some personal familiarity with prices in the grocery store, bringing up children, the fun of shooting fuzzy things in the forest and the out-
rageous cost of eye shadow, razor blades and designer jeans.
Many voters relish a candidate with knowledge of life in the trenches, especially a candidate who runs around the country happily slobbering on crowds. Voters value that more in most elections than they do some smarty pants who isn't so warm and fuzzy but who appears to have a brain and a bushel of new ideas for getting our country on course.
Mind you, they're happy to find a candidate who has both solutions for our daily struggles and a happy, sappy personality. But in a choice between a blunt grump who tells us what we don't want to hear and a sweet and smiley candidate with no real idea of what to do with the country, we often prefer the pleasant airhead. We like to see our own face in those two-legged mirrors who ask us for votes.
But we are more careful in choosing personal helpers like doctors and teachers and the city pothole crew. We're always happy to have a smile and a firm handshake from them but we want their competence more than their warmth.
And competence isn't exactly a secondary value in a president either. After all, a president with an itchy trigger finger can more suddenly end your life than a doctor can.
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Hall is editor emeritus of the Tribune's editorial page. His e-mail address is wilberth@cableone.net.
