George Washington has been our only true "reluctant" president -- a shame, actually, that he was both first and last in that respect, since everybody since - from John Adams to the current three-headed monster of McHillarbama - were/are about as reluctant to be president as Robert Mugabe (which, by the way, is an anagram for "Mob rage brute"). Anyway, we - the U.S. of A. - are in dire need of another reluctant president -- someone qualified to be president who doesn't really want to be president (instead of the other way 'round). Colin Powell seemed to be that person a few years back, but his reluctance was actually more of an aversion. So, who are those Americans out there that are well-known, qualified and at least a tad bit interested in the job, but still genuinely and sincerely reluctant to take on such a responsibility? Here's my short list (and, no, I don't have a long list): Brad Warthen, Pat Summit, and Dennis Miller. Well, I warned you that it was a short list. But I've got an editorial writer, a basketball coach and an obscure-reference comic in there; I think I'd be satisfied with any of them, because I'm pretty sure they'd be reluctant to take the job (at least until their first flight on AF1 to visit the Crowned Heads of Europe), and consequently, would be great at it. At least we'd have some champions of public education (Brad), teamwork and sacrifice (Pat), or verbal alacrity (Dennis), who would get my vote just because, in his own words, he's "always loved the flirtatious tango of consonants and vowels, the sturdy dependability of nouns and capricious whimsy of verbs, the strutting pageantry of the adjective and the flitting evanescence of the adverb, all kept safe and orderly by those reliable little policemen, punctuation marks. So, maybe he is a word nerd, but what an inaugural address we'd have!!!
