Politics as performance art

Politico columnist Roger Simon on today's body politic as it relates to the presidency (meaning Obama):

But theatrics are how a president sells himself and his policies, and if he fails to master those theatrics, or finds those theatrics too demeaning, then he and his party really will be voted off the island. And quickly.

I wish it were not so, but Simon's observations seem to be a sad fact. (Even scarier, Simon, a longtime journalist, seems to have bought into the notion.) At some level, perhaps this has always been the case throughout American history. But there is something fundamentally wrong, it seems to me, with demanding that our presidents -- be he Bush or Obama -- "perform" for the cameras at the relentless urging of the press. Not only wrong, but dangerous. Anybody with Hollywood good looks, charisma and innate acting skills can perform. Think Palin. But few can be capable presidents. Think Lincoln.