SENTINEL WATCH December 3, 2007 Issue

TO CHOOSE A GOOD PRESIDENT

KEITH S. COLLINS

American voters will need to decide soon who should serve as the next president of the United States. Starting with caucuses in Iowa early in 2008, voters will select a single candidate for each political party, then choose which one best embodies their ideals of leadership and good government.

Policy positions will be one basis of choice, but ever since George Washington had to be persuaded to become the first president, many Americans have also loved the idea of a chief executive with humility, compassion, sound judgment, and sound morals—in a word, integrity. They want someone who will not let his or her ambitions or political preferences get in the way of what's best for the nation.

In a recent article titled "A Still, Small Voice," New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote about interviewing Deborah Pryce, a congresswoman from Ohio (Oct. 16, 2007). He described how "she'd been fighting the war that the best politicians fight—the war within herself to preserve her own humanity." She had fought hard against "Meism," he said—the tendency to mistake egotism for leadership. To Brooks, Pryce represents the best kind of politician, those who "struggle to preserve their personal integrity."

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