Leader of the free world?

"Our party cannot be led to victory by someone who also has never run a business, and never run a state,".

This is from possible future President Mitt Romney after his defeat in the South Carolina Republican Party Primary. Given that the winner of that Primary, Newt Gingrich, is about the least inspiring choice available to his party since Richard Nixon, it does not make Romney look good. Frankly I have time for neither Romney nor Gingrich, but to return to the quote:

If a successful businessman is needed to run a country's economy, doesn't it follow that it needs someone who has served in a war to lead a war campaign, at least one that he has started or is going to start? Romney managed to duck the Vietnam War (as did Gingrich). None of his offspring will be sent to fight in any war with Iran, none of them is anywhere near the military as far as I am aware.

As ever, Ron Paul looks like the only GOP candidate who can be trusted in this respect.

Romney and Gingrich could (and probably would) both turn out to be GWB Mark II if they get elected. During the time of the Cold War the President of the USA was regarded as the "Leader of the Free World". Amidst all the acrimony among the populations of the allied countries resulting from the USA's cavalier attitude towards the rest of the world when Bush chose to invade Iraq, that title became almost meaningless.

If the new American President (given that the re-election of Obama is extremely unlikely) adopts a similar attitude to invading Iran, the "Free World" may well acquire a new definition. Rather than comprising all the allied nations, it may well comprise, the USA and maybe the Marshall Islands (oh, I forgot Israel - you cannot discuss a puppet show without mentioning the puppeteer). That is where I would expect the likes of Romney (and Gingrich) to take the USA though - sad comment that it is.

Postscript. If the choice is between Romney and Gingrich, it could be reduced to one between someone who changes his opinions to suit the situation on the one hand, and one who changes his wife to suit his own needs on the other. Consistency and reliability are definitely not qualities that you would associate with either of them.