I am not the president, I just play one on TV

This is my little sister's editorial published in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram on Saturday October 25, 2008.

I am not the president, I just play one on TV.
Ah . . . looking presidential in the debate season, or better yet, looking presidential without actually being president.
Personally, I think appearances and images are overrated. Does anyone recall George W. Bush at his best? He struck just the right note days after 9-11. Standing at ground zero, holding a bullhorn in one hand, his arm slung around a crusty firefighter, giving words of encouragement and gratitude to the emergency workers, he created perhaps his best presidential pose — he was the common-man president. He was the one who would guide us through scary times; he would make our shores safe; he would protect our children.
As even his supporters will tell you, it hasn’t worked out so well.
Appearing presidential in peaceful, good times is easy enough. You go to dangerous places, troubled lands. You meet with other presidents, you visit soldiers; you stand in front of flags and wave while climbing into helicopters.
But these are not normal times.
We are embroiled in our first full-scale global financial crisis. Yes, we have had to deal with global weapons, global warming, global villages, but this is our first economic global crisis.
In the 1950s we had to transform our way of seeing the world. Our world shrank with the advent of nuclear weapons. Oceans became ponds once our enemies had nuclear warheads.
In the 1990s we had to alter our way of seeing the environment. Our skies have been reduced to toxic ozones.
The pollution of Asia, of the United States, of Russia changes polar ice caps thousands and thousands of miles away.
Today we are in our first global financial crisis. Wall Street doesn’t merely affect Main Street; it affects Hauptsrasse, Rue Principale, Via Principale — Main streets the world over.
The economy has become the issue of this election. After each debate, pundits declare that they have yet to hear the knockout punch, the defining moment: "You, sir, are no Jack Kennedy"; "There you go again . . ."; Al Gore invading George W. Bush’s personal space. These moments have yet to happen.
Certainly this is not the climate for pithy statements. But, more telling, the crisis, and its possible solution, is too complex for a sound bite. Subprime loans, lack of regulation, esoteric derivatives; this is not the language of the masses.
So the candidates are left in new territory. How to look presidential when the weapons we face are not fueled by plutonium, but by credit-default swaps. Neither candidate has completely mastered the moment. The Straight Talk Express is not fluid in Financial Geek Speak. And the poetry of Obama, "We are the ones we have been waiting for; we are the change we seek," does little to calm voters who are losing their retirement.
Their words will not put liquidity back into the market.
The best they can do, perhaps, is address the two dominate emotions from their electorate: fear and anger. McCain seems at his best when he can express the anger of U.S. citizens, when he can point fingers and lay blame. Conversely, Obama cannot risk being overly angry lest he come across as militant. He seems better equipped to address our fears. In body language, tone and presence, he comes across as the more reassuring choice.
Over the next 10 days, as these two men rehearse their lines, choose their ties, apply their makeup, Americans can only hope each man wants to govern, wants to restore moral authority to our country, wants to be president and not just play one on TV.

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