Is it possible for a manager, such as the US President, to be a highly moral person?

People write about Obama as a person who is mired in the polarized climate of US politics. He just had to infuriate the left of his party to appease the Republicans in a tax deal.

Today it is possible to select a person earlier and better than before as a highly moral mind. In fact people can be coached through life as to be very "clean". Such people are in their forties today. It has occurred to me that the young present president, without management experience of a governor of a larger state, could have been thus selected. That is, it is judged that morals trump management skills. The Economist wrote that neither Obama nor McCain would have gotten a job in a large corporation.

I admire Bill Clinton a lot for what he achieved during his presidency and his approval polls rose steadily during his tenior, unique for recent presidents. He was a popular president despite the curious incident with Ms. Lewinsky. But it is not this kind of moral slip like, Mona Sahlin's Toblerone, that I'm thinking of when I discuss morals of a manager in action. Hard choices, tough action, wheeling and dealing, threatening, cajoling etc. It so happens that threats are illegal, at least according to Swedish law.

Well, this is just a thought. Or could it be that the mechanism by which moral persons is selected is tainted by immoral minds? It is often said that power corrupts?

Reading the papers in Sweden recently it has been impossible to avoid information regarding the selection procedure of the new party leader for the Social Democrats. Apparently this person should not be selected according to the same fashion as in the American Idol-type contests, says the chairperson of the committee that is responsible for the selection. Last time around, however, the Social Democrats selected Mona Sahlin, who therefore must be regarded as a moral person, since the behind closed door procedure of the party did select her. The problem was that people in the party did not like her. Her approval polls in the last election were very low. Is a highly moral person really that popular? Unless they reach sainthood, other people perhaps feel a little put off by the bliss.

So perhaps it is possible to be a highly moral person in one's forties but what is really needed is a more experienced and revered manager in his fifties, or God forbid sixties.