Greg Sheridan, Foreign editor of The Australian, examines the Democratic candidate. Sheridan finds a ruthless, traditional left-liberal, obsessed, at least in his public life, with race.
BARACK Obama is a fraud. But he is a very familiar kind of fraud: a politician pretending to be something he’s not. He is not the post-partisan, post-ideological seeker of a new politics and leader of a broad social movement to redeem the soul of America.
Rather, he is a brilliantly gifted, traditional, self-seeking politician who has sought for a long time to get to the top. He is also a traditional left-liberal, obsessed, at least in his public life, with race. He has built the momentum of his campaign on the most dubious basis that can exist in a democracy for garnering political support, racial identity.
…Oddly, it is the very cynicism and skill of this exercise that suggests to me Obama could yet make an effective president.
Sheridan may be right — that the most vital characteristics for a good president are cynicism, the ability to throw any supporter or policy position under the bus whenever it advances his political power.
Personally I think the most important, non-negotiable characteristic for a good president is character — specifically personal integrity.
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