The Myth of Being Presidential

A funny thing happens to chief executive-wanna-bes on their way to the White House--those who actually make it into the Oval Office become presidential.

Even the most important presidents in modern American political history could not be said to have garnered their uberpolitical stature until they reached office.

Franklin D. Roosevelt '04, who barely won the nomination, was labeled by the leading columnist of the day, "A very nice man who would very much like to be president." Not only did John F. Kennedy '40 barely win the nomination, his margin of victory in the general election was so small it has been alleged that he only won because of political chicanery by Daley's Chicago political machine. And our current president was best known as a joke in a Johnny Carson monologue before he managed to scale the White House walls on his second try.

In these political days where the seven dwarves square off against Goldilocks and the three bears, it certainly is comforting to consider that one of these candidates will actually emerge from the land of make-believe and become a real flesh and blood president. But still we yearn, it appears hopelessly, for candidates with firm chins already in place, and we spend our time shaking fists at the political gods for sending us fairy tale candidates. Being presidential has become the chief issue of the 1988 campaign.

Perhaps Reagan, JFK and FDR are to blame for this travesty of the political process. The efforts of these three men so finely tuned modern political tools of mass communication that we've forgotten that presidents are just citizens. Now, they're just an electron-etched face placed next to a bust of Lincoln. Let's face it, we're spoiled. Candidates have to meet our mass-culture image of the presidency to be considered worthy of our vote.

IT used to be that presidential aspirants boasted of their log cabin roots and displayed their ability to drink hard cider. This year one candidate appeared wind-swept on the cover of a national magazine in order to fight charges by his opponents that he was, aghast, a wimp. Another candidate makes his decision to run after a public opinion poll reveals that he most looks like the commander-in-chief.

But before we start listening to pundits pining, "Mario, Mario wherefore art thou Mario," we should be thankful that this year's presidential race may allow us to return to the days when anyone, even pimply-face youths, can dream of becoming president.

Just take a gander at the Democratic field, which is rife with supposed nonpresidents, especially among the current leaders. Michael S. Dukakis began his career as a local attorney, then became a state legislator, then lieutenant governor, then governor, then governor again and soon...well, who knows? Jesse Jackson was a young civil rights leader in the 1960s. He didn't gain his prominence, even as the leading national Black leader, until he entered the presidential race in 1984. And let us not forget that Richard Gephardt is after all a simple congressman representing a portion of St. Louis.

Of course those running for president, no matter how much they try to convince the voters, don't consider themselves to be regular Joes. In fact, they develop a messiah complex. How could they not? The candidates spend a year listening to their own voice listing the reasons they, and no one else, should be president. No doubt they convince themselves, if no one else. But then a president doesn't need to be a messiah; he or she just has to be a responsible human. And perhaps once we have realized that, we will start voting with our minds and not our hearts.