Alan Alda for President!

Russell Roberts is in love with the Evil Republican character on the TV show The West Wing:

It's some kind of debate I'm watching. Alda's opponent who is evidently a Democrat, touts his economic plan that will create a million jobs. The moderator asks Alda how many jobs his plan will create. Zero, Alda says. In fact, he adds, I'll cut jobs. I'll cut jobs in the federal government. Besides, he adds, Presidents don't create jobs, entrepreneurs do. My job as President is to get out of the way and let the market work.

At this point I know I'm watching a TV show. No real candidate for President would have the guts to answer the question this way.

[snip]

There were a few missteps here and there, but overall, it was the best defense of limited government I've heard from a candidate since Reagan. It figures, as a friend pointed out, Alda and Reagan are both actors.

Of course, the whole thing was a live version of the West Wing. But what I found interesting was how little they chose to caricature the Republican's views, at least in the part I saw. He wasn't a "compassionate conservative." And he wasn't a heartless monster. He was about as Jeffersonian as you could imagine. Whoever gets the Republican nomination the next time around ought to hire whoever wrote Alda's lines. It would be even nicer to have a candidate to choose from who actually believed those lines as well.

Hat tip to Radley Balko, who adds:

Still, the West Wing staff ought to be credited. Not only did they not creat a caricature of a Republican, they created a better Republican than any currently serving in Washington.