Over at Race 4 2012 we get this great observation on what the GOP needs in a leader -- I'd argue a presidential candidate -- in 2012.

If we knew him we would be able to say what makes him the right man. (Or the right woman. I’m only saying ‘man’ for convenience.) But as he’s not standing unmistakable before our eyes, we can at least try to describe what sort of person he should ideally be: what experience he should have had; what beliefs he should hold; what qualities and abilities he should have acquired or been endowed with by nature.

Completely irrelevant are his (her) ethnic derivation, racial descent, color, or class.

First, he must be proud of his country. He should know its history. He should want above all to preserve what it has always stood for: liberty. He should believe that American power is a force for good in the world and be determined to maintain it.

Next, he should have been a leader in some walk of life, and have proved himself to be trustworthy and competent at directing others.

He must of course be a person of honor, decency, civility, and probity. He should deeply desire to be just, but hold the law and the Constitution in higher esteem than his own inclinations.

He should be a good judge of character, know how to weigh advice, but be intelligently decisive and firm in implementing what he decides.

He should be able to talk to the nation plainly, to say what he means and mean what he says.

He should broadly share the values, understand and respect the aspirations of his fellow Americans.

He must be a zealot for national prosperity, keen to let the free market work as the unique bread machine that it is, by keeping taxes low, government curbed, and private property safe.

Finally, he should be the sort of commonsensical soul who takes himself with a pinch of suspicion.

Jillian Becker does not profess to know who this leader is -- indeed, she ends her piece by asking who we see on the horizon that fits the bill. I know we had such a man three decades ago -- the man who inspired so many of us who are activists today to become the activists that we are today. That is not to say that we need another Reagan -- the challenges we face today are different and the leader we need will have been refined in a different crucible than that which formed the Fortieth President of the United States. Yet those characteristics that made Reagan the leader he was are the same that we need now -- and it truly does not matter if the leader is named Palin or Petraeus, Romney or Jindal, Huckabee or Pawlenty, or some other name that does not leap immediately to mind, provided that the bulk of these traits animate this next leader's platform and personality.

Posted by: Greg at 11:20 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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