Presidential Character

A reader writes in, likely in response to this:

So what is wrong with Newt? He is a very smart man. Frankly, I was amazed that he got that many votes in your poll from us backwoods South Dakotans.

First, if being smart was the halmark of presidential success, we'd be singing the praises of Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter and lampooning George Washington and Dwight Eisenhower.  Second, if Newt Gingrich was half as smart as he thinks he is, he'd still be smarter than Einstein.  Gingrich has the vices of the supposed smart man, namely that he thinks that political problems are like the problems with your car: if you put smart people in charge and let them tinker around, they will eventually solve all of your problems.  Sure, smarter is better, but smarter doesn't automatically make one a good leader.  Gingrich thinks that the problem with American politics is the failure of ideas rather than of leadership.  Gingrich is a technocrat, which is worrisome and most unconservative.  And if Gingrich's tenure as Speaker of the House means anything, he is not exactly a natural born leader. 

I once had in my possession a copy of the speech Herbert Hoover gave on the occasion of George Washington's bicentennial in 1932.  Many libraries will have it if they own Hoover's presidential papers (and a surprising number do).  Hoover, by the way, is an example of a smart and decent man who was a poor president as he failed to lead in a time of crisis.  But in this speech Hoover meditated on why the founding generation kept turning to Washington for leadership.  If I had the speech or could find it on-line I'd quote it, but this is essentially it.  Hoover points out, correctly, that among Washington's peers in the founding generation there were smarter men, more accomplished men, men who had more knowledge of government, men of far greater education and erudition, and even better generals.  So why did they keep turning to Washington for leadership?  Because they knew he was incorruptible.  One of my favorite paintings is in the Capitol rotunda in Washington, DC and it is of Washington resigning his commission at the end of the Revolutionary War.  This is the mark of a great leader and a greater man.  Washington could have been King of America, and would have been chosen so with acclimation if he had so desired.  But he preferred to return to Virginia and work on his farm.  That's leadership.  I am afraid Newt Gingrich has more in common with Woodrow Wilson, another great mind who thought that if we just gave him the power to figure things out he could single handedly solve our problems.  I'd prefer someone closer to Washington than to Wilson.