Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying charisma has no bearing. A lot of being a leader depends on one's diplomacy and negotiation skills, which charisma definitely CAN apply to. All I'm saying is its silly to praise a leaders oration abilities when you don't even know what he's actually saying. Fiery speeches are great to motivate people into a common goal, but as a voter you should realize that in the pre-election process they have no actual use except to distract and hoodwink. It's a stupid thing to judge a leader on because generally, when choosing a leader you're trying to avoid any actual situation where he has to stand in front of a large group of people and appeal to their emotions or convince them of anything. You're trying to choose a leader who will sail your ship away from the situations which would make doing so necessary.
Beyond that, being a great public speaker says very little of negotiation skills or being a great personal speaker - which is why Toastmaster meetings are filled with people who are already very successful in business. Charisma certainly is important, but not nearly as important as policy platforms, which is what leaders should be addressing pre-election. You can just sigh and mumble that nobody actually does, but that's not really the attitude that leads to change. What you mean is that nobody in the two parties you're "forced" to vote for unless you want to "waste" your vote. Apathy isn't going to change that - that's what they're counting on.
Look at elections in the rest of the world. Less of a circus, more of a job interview.
