Real leadership is an ineffable phenomenon. How is it that at certain times, perhaps when most needed, there arises a Lincoln or a (Franklin) Roosevelt? Thinking about the circumstances of those examples is almost enough to make one believe in a special providence. Special because like other mystical/religious terms (like mercy or even salvation in certain sects) it is undeserved. And frankly, in my bitter, wizened, view few societies are less deserving of salvation or mercy than the US in the early twentieth century.

But maybe leadership of the dramatic and transformational quality is something that is sometimes evoked by urgencies arising from a society that still retains untapped reservoirs of energy and potential. FDR, in addition to the fact that he was a master manipulator, had almost nothing in common with working class Americans. But he connected - and DELIVERED - in a way that was fundamentally responsive and generative.

In those days immediately following 9/11, I remember holding my breath. Maybe the needs and urgencies of the circumstance would evoke an inspiring sense of responsibility and possibility in the patently illegitimate occupant of the White House? (I know I’ve watched too many Frank Capra movies.)

But maybe it’s possible. And maybe it’s not too late. Maybe Obama really is “the one” Miss Jane Pittman wanted us to wait for. Or maybe there are special qualities that true responsibility and urgency will awake in Hillary, or maybe even McCain.

I know some would say it is possible that we, as a culture, have outgrown “leadership” - at least in “conventional” forms. But somehow that (to me) seems even more nonsensical than any mystical or sociological conception of the type of leadership that we so sorely need. In any event, I can only hope that we do not continue to get the kind of leadership that we so seemingly deserve.