The King is Dead

His Majesty King Taufa'Ahau Tupou IV of Tonga, who died recently, sounds like a really cool person and a lot better than just about anybody we've had in charge. Okay, I'll admit to certain monarcist sympathies but a guy who introduced surfing to his homeland already is ahead on cool points.

He also had a sense of humor about himself making jokes like this: "I'm a bit of a Pooh-bah, you know," said the Crown Prince in 1962, "except that I don't cut off any heads." In later life he joked about his weight problem, "My doctor's put me on a diet," the King said in 1999. "I'm only allowed to eat three yams a day. But a yam can be 6ft long."

And finally, there was his view on getting smart people into power: "He considered the monarch's right to appoint one third of the legislature as the only certain means of ensuring that the better-educated Tongans got into the government. "The intelligentsia," he said some years after ascending the throne, "are not the best campaigners. We have not had one person with a degree elected — they have all been appointed by me.""

I'd vote for him. Heck dead people have won elections in this country before. We'd have to do something about that whole native born citizen clause though.