I’ll admit that intelligence isn’t the primary factor for me: values are. I’d rather have a less intelligent (not that I’ll agree that Bush is stupid) president than one whose values I don’t agree with. And since candidates are generally diametrically opposed on values, I think a lot of times that ends up being the deciding factor. Thankfully, the president doesn’t have to rely on his own intelligence to get the job done.

The problem, though, and what has really disappointed me is how political politics are. At one point (before the election) W came to “give his testimony” at the church I was attending. I was excited to hear about a person’s faith who (at that point) could be our next president, and this was certainly an appropriate forum for it. Instead of the testimony we were promised, however, what I got was a typed speech that was so political it didn’t say much beyond that he planned on following his “faith” (which he never expounded upon) in office.

Though this didn’t cause me to dislike Bush nor believe that he’s not a man of faith, the experience showed me that a politician is first and foremost just that. Yes he does share many of my values, but he is so busy being a politician it’s difficult for the “real” man to come out. Everything is about his public life and policy.

I don’t believe this is a problem with Bush alone, but politics in general. I’d guess that I would have felt the same way if I’d been a Gore supporter and heard him speak in a similar setting. In the end, I guess that I was naïve to think running the country could ever be about the people electing a person who best embodies their ideals. Instead we hire professionals who know how to play the game. Maybe that shouldn’t bother me, but it does.