I feel the far more interesting question is what is specifically wrong with American politics that we cannot get our best and brightest people to wind up as candidates.
I am so over the the overly-partisan rhetoric and seriously don't care which party I'm voting for... I'd just like at least one good choice, preferably two.
It seems ridiculous to me that we cannot do that in this country.
What's wrong?
Scope of power.
Speaking specifically of legislative candidates (I'll expound my theories on Presidential candidates further down), when the ratio of representatives to citizens was a lot less, you had just enough responsibility that the best in each segment didn't find it an overwhelming burden to try to represent his/her fellow citizens. Also, the amount of "power" that each representative had was enough to be effective, but not enough to necessitate undue influential efforts by corporate entities and the like.
Now, the scope of the power of a position has become so huge that the only people that can succeed are those that are willing to do whatever it is to succeed, honest, moral, or no. They cater to the influential entities (corporations, PACs, etc.) to get backing to even have a chance in a political race. These people are professional schmoozers, not professional representatives.
As far as the President is concerned... again, scope of power.
This is an animal of both the executive and legislative branches' making. Too much power has become seated in the presidency, by virtue of the growing strength of the federal government. By legislating things at a federal level that should probably be kept at a state level, you are making the presidency more powerful because the President is the CEO of the federal government - or at least, the executive branch.
And, once again, the power of the Presidency, and influence over it, brings to bear all of the same corporate and otherwise entities that have a lot of cash and wish to exert undue pressure on the government for their own purposes.
I'm really sorry, I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir here. But I had to vent.
This is one of the many reasons why I'm backing Johnson this election cycle. I think the size and scope of our government has gotten ridiculous.