UGLY GUY WANTED – AT 10:52 A.M. ET:  Tony Harnden, of London's Telegraph, looking ahead to 2012, prescribes the kind of president he thinks America may want:

You could call it the revenge of the ugly white guys. After electing a handsome sleek, biracial - and untested - man as President last time, Americans may well be ready for something entirely different in 2012.

Remember that you heard it here first: make way for the short, pudgy, balding white fellow who's been there and got the scars - and the results - to prove it.

In many respects, Barack Obama was the ultimate candidate for the television age. He looked fantastic and sounded wonderful. He soared above politics and made people feel better about themselves.

Ability to get things done? Track record? Such petty considerations seemed beside the point in 2008 for Obama was the very culmination of history. It was almost as if the then Senator for Illinois symbolised the end of politics, the point at which the perfect candidate drew a line under grubby partisanship.

Now, Americans have woken up from that dream and are living with the hangover. Neither history nor politics ended when Obama's ascended to the Oval Office.

Very well stated.  And whom does Harnden have in mind?

Mitch Daniels, described by the "Washington Post" as Indiana's "diminutive governor" sports what looks suspiciously like a combover...

... Daniels has been a quiet star, securing bipartisan support for a Healthy Indiana programme Indiana that provides health insurance for blue collar workers, cutting property taxes and turning an $800 billion deficit into a surplus.

I'm going to a Hudson New York lunch with Daniels tomorrow.  I'll tell you what I think.

Haley Barbour has more hair than Daniels but isn't much taller and if elected would be the most portly president since William Howard Taft, who occupied the White House from 1909 to 1913.

The Mississippi governor has a certain rumpled panache and Southern charm. I first bumped into him in a casino in his home state - where he later came to personify executive competence as he dealt masterfully with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina while neighbouring Louisiana lurched towards catastrophe.

Barbour is a master at politics.  Like Mitch Daniels, he's run a successful government, something Barack Obama has never done.  He has some political problems, not the least of which is "Mississippi."  It's unfair, but that state is still stamped with the "racist" label, even though it has made remarkable racial progress, and has had some fine, modern governors. 

But I think Harnden is right.  In 2012, Americans might just be looking for a capable, balding guy like Eisenhower instead of another Mr. Excitement.  We've had all the excitement we can handle.  Besides, Sammy Davis Jr. did it better.

March 7, 2010