Sally Field may forever regret her Oscar acceptance speech in 1984 when she uttered the now famous line, “You like me, you really like me.” But the rest of us love that she said it. It’s such a convenient line to use — either facetiously, or humorously, or in an attempt to make a point. The latter is what I would like to do now. I would like to apply this line to politics and the bleak reality that there doesn’t seem to be anyone out there who wants to be president because he or she sincerely likes us and wants to better our lives by becoming our leader.

President Obama seems downright annoyed every time he speaks to us as a nation…which isn’t often, by the way. One gets the feeling that he’s been pulled away from something he really likes — like golf or shooting pool — and is counting the minutes until he can leave us behind and hit the links. Hillary Clinton spends an awful lot of time talking about herself — does she realize there is a whole country full of people out here and it might be a good idea to show some interest in us? There was no one in the the last presidential election who seemed eager to engage in a group hug with Americans. John McCain acted like the mean man in the neighborhood who  shouts, “Get off my lawn!” Sarah Palin would probably make more sense if she had a pre-frontal lobotomy. Mitt Romney put his dog in a crate, strapped him to the roof of his car and drove to Canada, so what does that say about his sense of humanity? And Rick Perry is a little too fond of executing people.

I’m just saying that if a candidate really embraced us (figuratively speaking) and seemed as though he or she deeply cared about our fears, our struggles, our challenges and our triumphs, that person would be a shoe-in for president. We’d feel better, we’d be happier and more confident. We’d feel validated and acknowledged. And, of course we would sleep peacefully and blissfully, knowing that the leader of our country likes us, really likes us.