What About Character?

            I recently met Mrs. Ann Romney at the Garcia home in Salem.  As the reporter from the Boston Globe accurately pointed out, Mrs. Romney told “homey anecdotes” and didn’t want to discuss “boring stuff” like policy speeches. 

           And yet it occurs to me I learned more about Mitt Romney while I was munching a cookie near the Garcia refrigerator than I did in an endless parade of over-organized, contentious, back-biting, gotchya debates I forced myself to watch. 

           I learned that Candidate Romney sticks by his family in good times and bad. I learned he loves his wife in sickness and health.  I learned he’s patient with his five sons and that he and his wife brag about their son, the doctor, just like any other parents would do.  I didn’t learn Candidate Romney’s preferences on policy wonk issues and 999ish plans that will never see the light of day in real world Washington, D.C.  But somehow I can’t work up any disappointment over that.

            As a Historian in Training, I can’t help but think of campaigns of yesteryear.  (Yes, the Lone Ranger was one of my favorite TV shows, and I’ve been dying to use “yesteryear” in a piece for a long time.)  I don’t recall any of the media stars of the day asking Jimmy Carter what he would do if a bunch of crazed terrorists took over an American embassy in the Middle East.  I can’t remember any reporter asking Ronald Reagan how he would nudge along the collapse of the Evil Empire.  No one quizzed George Bush on what he would do if someone blew up the World Trade Center or a hurricane blew away New Orleans.  I certainly never heard a single question posed to our current President asking what he would do if his plans to revive the economy didn’t seem to be working.

            It’s a simple fact that most presidencies are defined by the unexpected, by the things our omnipotent media mavens never expect.  While we’re busy discussing the finer points of a two month versus a 12 month payroll tax holiday, we’re not learning much about how a candidate will react to that situation no one saw coming, or if the candidate will remain calm when having to move to plan B and maybe even plan C.

            The media has certainly done our citizens a disservice by abandoning all semblance of objectivity, but I think the greater harm is their total devotion to issue politics.  Sure it makes for better TV to trip up a candidate and let the person sweat for awhile to amuse the audience.  Discussions of character just don’t fit in 30 second sound bites, so the inquisitors just can’t go there.

            We need to know what’s inside those who want to be our leader.  We need to know a great deal about their character.  Not if they’ve ever made a mistake or done something they shouldn’t have, but what they’re made of, if they have the “right stuff.”  When men and women rode flames into the heavens we seemed to have a clearer picture of what the “right stuff” was.  We didn’t seem to have such a need to know what policies those brave ones preferred.

           We don’t need the dirt digging and the real or made-up scandals blocking our view of the important things.  We don’t need to know about some obscure speech from 15 years ago, or a flippant remark that probably shouldn’t have been made.  As long as we’re stuck with human beings for candidates, let’s just stipulate we have all sinned and come short. Sadly, these days, even when real citizens ask the questions, they’ve been so brainwashed by this issues politics nonsense, they sound just like the reporters.  Come on media gods, do the hard work.  Tell us about the candidate’s character, not their favorite color.

          I’m really glad I heard Ann Romney talk about her husband.  To be honest, I wasn’t looking forward to it.  I wish I could hear the other candidate’s spouses do the same, without the media gurus whispering in my ear what they think is important.  I wish the reporters would talk more about character.  But then again, I liked the Lone Ranger.  The media would probably want to know why he wore the mask.