What Does It Mean to be Presidential?

What does it really mean - to be presidential?

This weekend there was an article about smiles, the idea being that some smiles are pleasant and make people want to vote for a candidate while other smiles are artificial or smirking and make people want not to vote for the candidate.

Of course, the prime example was Ronald Reagan, and his twinkling eyes were part of the equation. But, others whose smiles helped, according to the study, were George W. Bush vs the condescending smile of Al Gore in 2000.  And Bill Clinton’s smile against that of Bob Dole. And evidently, Barak Obama’s 2008 smile.

In the past, there have been studies that show that people with ‘R’ in their last name are more often elected US President. And, we could probably add other characteristics that help, especially in this age of TV and wall-to-wall media coverage.

But, I don’t think these are anything more than the outward manifestations, to be theological about it, of an inner truth, an inner carriage and disposition of the persona and soul that connect with the most fundamental searching in the deep recesses of the American electorate’s hearts and minds for someone to lead them.

The best example of this is surely Abraham Lincoln, who was neither handsome nor even normal-looking, but whose profound wisdom and humanity reached so deeply into the American psyche that he is still regularly voted the best President of all time. Could Honest Abe do the same today in our media-sensitized world? I think so. Because he was presidential…a leader.

Now - to return to my question, just what does it mean to be presidential?

The TV pundits have latched onto the word to describe Newt Gingrich’s rapid and late rise in the polls. Gingrich is not at all like Lincoln, but he is presidential because he has the aura of knowing who Americans are and what they want in 2012. He is thoughtful. He is not petty as others have been in their attempt to score debate points. He is, despite his professorial diction and word choice, one with the electorate. He understands and tries to reflect that when he talks. And when he talks, he is solving problems in a two-way discussion with America, giving his views and asking for feedback to refine his views, but not to drastically change them.

We don't need to try to guess what he’ll do as President, because he tells us and says if we don’t agree he is willing to take the hit for his beliefs. This trait is what won the 1981 French presidency for François Mitterrand. He said, when asked by a reporter in a TV interview about his view on capital punishment and the use of the guillotine, that he was against it. He said he knew that the majority of French citizens were for capital punishment and that he would understand if they did not vote for him, but that he could not change his belief simply to be elected. His staff walked away from that evening sure he had lost the election. But he was elected, and he banished capital punishment, with a majority of French in agreement with the decision. That, my friends, is presidential.

Leadership is a strange and indefinable quality. It rests in the deep unspoken connection that the leader and his followers have for one another. It is founded on honesty and is grown in trust developed through always telling the hard truths, always being up-front with the followers.

From leadership comes the common ground, the commitment of leader and followers to each other needed to do great things - as a sports team, as a religion, as a political entity, as a nation.

America is sorely in need of a leader. If Newt Gingrich continues to make the presidential connection with America, he may be what Americans have been searching for. And, then, it won’t matter if he has been divorced or bought too many baubles at Tiffany’s.

What will matter is that, together, he and America may be able to do the job everyone knows must be done.