Faith In The Oval Office

I read the most remarkable thing today. A statement of faith in the reforming ability of a single room. Here it is:

I believe the office, without regard to who happens to hold it, has a higher level of integrity than that.

The author was talking about the US Presidency - and it isn't the first time I have heard such statements when defending what appears to be naked self-interest on behalf of an incumbent President. In this case, it was whether a sitting President would start a war at least partly to stay in power on the back of the inevitable patriotic wave.

Of course he would, if that was the kind of person he was before he became President.

The Oval Office has no magical power to change the leopards spots. If a politician is willing to take "gifts" and say nothing; exert his infuence in exchange for a quid-pro-quo; use his political power to get laid; take advantage of his connections to enrich himself and his backers; strongarm investigators to deflect attention from his misdeeds or run for the Presidency for his own end rather than the benefit of the nation - then the walls of the Oval Office will not change that person's nature as soon as he sits at the big desk. Nor does the wish to abuse their power alter depending on which party they belong to.

Remember Clinton? Remember Nixon? People are people, often fallable and imperfect - they do not suddenly become transformed by the nature of their office.

However, as i said, there is a tendency amongst Americans to imagine a Superman suit under the wool and necktie of an incumbent president. Europeans, perhaps because they have those extra hundreds of years of national histories, tend not to be so naive. If a British Prime Minister is found to tap the phones of his enemies then it's a four day scandal but nothing we didn't expect would happen sometime. If a French President has a mistress she is a national celebrity, although a discreet one.

When you were growing up, one day you realised that your father wasn't a superhero and wasn't perfect - he was just as human as everyone else. It is one of the moments that mark the passage into maturity.