Charisma?

The 2008 election has been an exceptionally interesting campaign so far, and it promises to continue being exceptionally interesting. One of the things I find fascinating in any campaign is how each side believes only the good about its candidates and only the bad about the candidates of the other side. I dislike good-vs-bad thinking and try to avoid it, but it is almost impossible to avoid if you get emotionally invested in a campaign. There is probably some psychological explanation for this, but I do not know what it is. It is easier to look back at past presidencies without that emotional investment, and to see that in all of them there were good decisions and bad decisions. None were totally bad and none were totally good.

I have also been fascinated by the role of charisma, probably because I have none at all and do not understand why some people have it and others do not. John Kennedy had a lot but Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon had little. Ronald Reagan had it, and the Bushes were charisma challenged. Bill Clinton, the most gifted politician in my lifetime, had immense amounts of it, but his wife Hillary has little. John Edwards must have had quite a bit because he did not have anything else. Barack Obama has it, and maybe Sarah Palin does too. The left blogosphere has gone nuts in the past few days in an orgy of personal attack that makes sense if they subconsciously fear that she may have this gift. If she were the disaster that they claim she is, they should sit back and wait, which is what the right seems to be doing with Joe Biden. In the next two months we will learn if she is the real thing or just another uncharismatic politician.