Is it time for President Oprah?

I watched Oprah Winfrey's speech at the Golden Globes ceremony, and I have to congratulate her on a rousing, beautifully delivered speech. (I watched the YouTube version, not live.) I've never been mesmerized by Oprah or any other daytime TV star, but I've admired her business and entertainment savvy and appreciate her support for books and authors more than anything else she's done.

Monday's speech kicked off a groundswell, so it seems, for Oprah's presidential bid in 2020. The Democratic Party has no obvious consensus candidate for the next presidential election, so the path seems wide open for Oprah. Her speech shows she knows how to inspire and motivate others. I could vote for her, particularly if her opponent is Donald J. Trump.

But I have some concerns about an Oprah presidency. First of all, I don't think America needs another television celebrity with no governmental experience in charge of the Executive Branch. Sure, Oprah is not at all like Trump, but she  shares some of his disqualifications: lack of government experience, lack of government service, and lack of deep knowledge of how to get things done in Washington. Some of the electorate will consider these "disqualifications" as the highest and best qualifications, but putting a novice in charge is highly risky in any venture.

Oprah would be the opposite of Donald Trump in policy making in areas such as civil rights, regulation of private business, immigration, taxation, deficit spending, judicial appointments, foreign policy and authority of the administration. These issues can and should be debated separate from the issues of presidential experience and capabilities. Issue debates will go on regardless of who is elected president in 2020.

One huge positive for Oprah will be her ability to inspire the country. American voters have become cynical, distrusting and dubious about the ability of the federal government to do anything right or do the right thing. An inspirational president could reverse this decades-long trend toward national cynicism and distrust. John F. Kennedy, the most inspiring president of my lifetime, said that he wanted to show young people that politics could be an honorable career choice. JFK was one of only a handful of great inspirational leaders to win the White House, following Jefferson, Lincoln, the Roosevelts and Wilson. (I'm not including Obama in this list; although he could be inspiring, his presidency failed to gain bipartisan consensus, and he is too recently out of office for history to fairly judge him.)

All of these presidents inspired with words, with lofty rhetoric that inspired the public and motivated them to support administration initiatives. Oprah clearly has the rhetorical skills to articulate inspiring messages that could marshal national support. She could be the singular individual who could reverse the long trend toward cynicism and distrust, but she will have to show that she is a skilled administrator as well as a writer and speaker.