Tuesday, Indianapolis, Indiana

Today may well prove to be a significant day in the presidential election. The Pennsylvania Democratic primary could determine whether Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama is the candidate to run against John McCain. While we celebrate that we have free elections, that our leaders are chosen by the people, most of us feel the frustration that what it takes to become president is often in the hands of a smaller group of power brokers.

America was famously born and formed as a result of its earliest citizens who bristled at the autocracy that came with an inherited monarchy an ocean away. The fate of the people was at the whim of the benevolence - or the personality disorder - of the King or Queen. If the ruler was psychologically stable, the government cared for the people. If on the other hand (as was sometimes the case) the monarch was a narcissist, a flagrant psychopath or some other head case, the people paid the painful price - as they always do.

Most of us wish that our electoral process was characterized by a little more democratic purity. The influence of media, powerful corporate forces and other mysterious power brokers makes many of us suspicious that we are not getting the best leadership available from among the populace.

Over the course of my lifetime, I have lived under the influence of 11 different presidents. While I felt more political affinity with some than others, my opinions were balanced by other citizens who had the opposite point of view. Fans of Ronald Reagan were surely turned off by Lyndon Johnson and Bill CLinton. And in contrast, Jimmy Carter fans were likely appalled by President Reagan and both President Bushes.

On balance, the American system swings within a fairly narrow range from right to left. When I feel frustrated by the direction of the country, and I am willing to admit that I’m extremely frustrated with the direction that George Bush has taken America, at least we know that there will be a change in not too many months.

Curiously today is the 499th anniversary of the beginning of the reign of King Henry VIII of England. He was, it is safe to say, a mercurial if not disturbed government leader. The turmoil he ushered into the British Empire has made his fame continue to this very day.

Thankfully I live in a country where the leadership that turns me off has a chance to be replaced by a leadership that will turn me on. I can’t imagine living in a country waiting for a change that could take a lifetime - the life time of an inherited monarch. I’ll try and keep that perspective regardless of the outcome this coming November.