Principles vs the Presidency

Why do the principled ones never stick around?

I'm still lamenting Chuck Hagel's announcement last week that he is NOT going to run for the Presidency and that he is in fact going to not run for public office any more.

Hagel is the kind of candidate I could be proud to vote for. Not because of his politics, he's a lot more conservative than I am on social issues, but because everything I've read about him shows he's more concerned with his princples and what's best for America than politics.

Of course, that's probably why he could never win the Presidency. Two examples of principles over popular politics:

• his repeated breaks with the President in favor of ACTUAL support of the troops, instead of joining is fellow Republicans in filibustering the new law to force troops to have at least as much time at home as they had in a war zone before having to back, he actually stood up and co-sponsored the bill.



• his reason for not running for another term in the Senate: He said when he first ran that two terms was enough, and that the country was best served when there was a regular infusion of fresh blood, and that he promised not to stay long enough to become part of that problem. Along comes the end of his second term, and lo and behold, he's keeping to his word.

You have to be popular to win elections. You have to play politics to be popular (anyone who claims otherwise is lying to you like the used car salesman who confides in you that some of the other car dealers in town rip people off, to try to distract you from the fact that he's trying to do the same to you). And rare is the person who can play that game well and not lose sight of their principles in the vortex of pandering and political maneuvering.

But damn, it'd be nice to vote for someone like Chuck Hagel for President. Not because he'll do exactly what I want him to do, but because I believe he'd honestly do what he felt was best for the country, not what was best for himself, is friends or his party.

Liam.