Kevin McGeary

    NEXT November, Barack Obama will try to convince the American populace that he deserves another term. Unlike presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, Obama has proven unsuccessful at selling his ideas to a hostile congress.

    His supporters have argued that he is dealing with unprecedentedly uncooperative opposition. Commentator Andrew Sullivan claims that the Republicans are not, as they claim, fiscally conservative. Sullivan opined that during the debt-ceiling stand off this summer, they betrayed the basic rule of fiscal conservatism — responsibility.

    But politics is a bottom-line business, and unemployment remains high. If this does not change before the election, then his job approval ratings will be low on the big day. Republican David Frum expressed exasperation in New York magazine about Republicans’ conviction that Obama is a radical socialist, in spite of “record-high corporate profits, and almost 500,000 job losses in the public sector.” The president is also under attack from the left for failing to reform the banks.

    The race to stand against Obama as Republican candidate is entering its final strait. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has been polished in every debate, but does not inspire the party’s grass roots, thus has never taken a convincing lead in polls.

    The current front-runner among ABR (Anyone But Romney) voters is former house speaker Newt Gingrich. Gingrich is an exuberant debater and is the most experienced in Washington politics. But he has a history of adultery and much baggage that goes with having a long political career. Bruce Bartlett, who held senior policy roles in both the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations, attacked Gingrich’s criticism of the Congressional Budget Office in a New York Times blog post last week. Bartlett views this as part of a wider pattern of Gingrich disrespecting any expertise other than his own.

    Gingrich’s candidacy is not guaranteed to burn out like those of previous challengers. These include Texas Governor Rick Perry, who is a poor debater; businessman Herman Cain, who lacks foreign policy knowledge and has been accused of sexual misconduct; and Michelle Bachmann who appeals to the party’s base, but is too radical for election to such high office.

    The problem with the presidency is that one must appear both diplomatic and decisive, and have an untainted personal life, in spite of having one of the world’s most pressurizing jobs. This has clearly weighed heavily on Obama. Even when you remove the fact Europe has no country as powerful as the United States, there is no equivalent job in European politics that requires so much.

    Many Brits were mystified this year as to why Americans were so interested in Britain’s royal wedding, and why the royal family generates so much interest in the United States. It could be because the British head of state, unlike her American counterpart, is held above the dirty business of daily politics.

    In European countries such as Britain, Ireland, Italy and Holland, the head of state is a president or monarch whose role is to be politically neutral, satisfactorily wholesome, and represent the country abroad. The bare-knuckle fist-fighting of politics is left to the prime minister and other members of parliament. Measured by this standard, Gingrich would be an effective prime minister but an unsuitable president. Obama, with his good looks and model family, would be a popular president but, judging by his current record, a weak prime minister.

    If one looks closer at the records of the presidents who are now considered great, such as Lincoln, Jefferson and Theodore Roosevelt, it is soon evident that they all expressed views or did things in their personal lives that would make them unelectable today. The presidency is an old institution in danger of collapsing under its own weight. Upon Obama’s inauguration in 2009, satirical newspaper The Onion ran the headline “Black man given nation’s worst job.” If his enemies really want to avenge him, maybe they should plot to give him another four years.

    (The author is a Shenzhen Daily senior copy editor and writer.)