Warrior-poet, statesman, humanitarian, friend to big business and self-described “bleeding heart Independent,” President Charles H.P. Smith rose to prominence giving the keynote address at the 2004 convention of the National Confraternity of Association. “Our Ideas,” he said, “are our own. They are a true possession. And it would be criminal to share them.”

Following his personal star through years of a stormy presidency, his straightforward no-nonsense approach to politics, the environment, abortion, gun control, the economy, and the Iraq War, has alienated not only the electorate on both sides of the aisle, but the aisle itself.

Who can forget the slogan which brought him to office: “Question Authority – this means you;” and his now-famous summation of the political process: “Any philosophy which cannot be written on a bumper sticker cannot be placed on the back of a car.”

Taunted by his opponents with “shifting” positions on the Iraq War, President Smith turned the argument on its head, by characterizing himself as “flexible” (which led to him, famously, being labeled as a “rubber-chicken-hawk”).

Now up for re-election, President Smith continues to offer the Public that profoundly American combination: a beacon of Hope, and a nexus of intractable confusion. Or, as he has written, “If progress is not a way of going forward, what is it?”

What is it, indeed.

Charles H.P. Smith: a man of his times.

www.novembertheplay.com

*A character from the mind of David Mamet

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