As the presidential race progresses, the latest Newsweek column from George Will should offer some valuable perspective.
Will ridicules the notion of the president who can solve every problem:
If you can name it, presidents are responsible for it. The name for
this is infantilization. “The average American,” said President Richard
Nixon, “is just like the child in the family?you give him some
responsibility and he is going to amount to something.” Vice President
Al Gore said the government should act like “grandparents in the sense
that grandparents perform a nurturing role.”Such
demented talk encourages presidential candidates to make delusional
promises?energy independence in eight years (Mike Huckabee), “an
excellent teacher in every classroom” and “every school an outstanding
school” (John Edwards, who presumably knows how every school can stand
out when all are outstanding), a “perfect” nation (see above) and so on.The
last presidential candidate to talk sense about the office was
fictional. In an episode of NBC’s “The West Wing,” the Republican
candidate, who was not the hero, was asked, “How many jobs
will you create?” “None,” he replied, adding: “Entrepreneurs create
jobs. Business creates jobs. The president’s job is to get out of the
way.”
You might remember Will’s speech at the John Locke Foundation’s anniversary dinner in Charlotte. If not, this should jog your memory.
