COLUMN: If not a rich guy for president, then who?

George Washington never released his income tax returns while running for president and for two very good reasons.

First, both times he ran he was unopposed, so there was no opposition to carp about it in the media and on facebook. Secondly, there was no income tax.

But if old George were duking it out in the Whig presidential primary today, chances are his rivals would be all over him to make details of his financial worth public. He was, by all accounts, a rich man in the style of his time, with vast land holdings in Virginia and what is today, West Virginia. Historians disagree as to exactly how wealthy he was – some think he may have been the richest president ever, and  in their 1996 book, The Wealthy 100: From Benjamin Franklin to Bill Gates–A Ranking of the Richest Americans, Past and Present, Michael Klepper and Robert Gunther put George at No. 59 — but no matter the exact numbers the point is the same. The Father of Our Country wasn’t an ordinary guy.

Would we want him to be?

The debate over Mitt Romney’s tax returns poses this very question. Instead of embracing it and the personal success that puts it at the fore, Romney has mostly fumbled his way through the discussion, begrudgingly agreeing to eventual release some returns, and waving off some of his extraordinary earnings ($373,000 in speaking fees) as “not very much.” There’s no doubt it cost him votes in Saturday’s S.C. primary, and if he doesn’t right the personal fortune ship, he could go down with it.

But taking two steps back, the whole idea is bathed in a foolish light. The fat cat Republican Party is worried about a candidate that made too much money? The people of America really want an Average Joe for president?

Not me.

Give me a rich guy who knows how many zeros are in a million every time.

This is not a matter of wealth but of picture of competence. Personal net worth is but one measure of that, and not necessarily the best one, but it speaks to life experiences that have prepared a candidate for the ardors of the nation’s highest elective office. Hollywood fantasy might show an everyman’s good heart and common sense propelling to a successful presidency, but in real life the president must deal with powerful people at their level. If he or she is not comfortable and confident at that level – intellectually, monetarily, politically – they will fail. Our last two presidents came up short in at least one of those areas (you can figure out which one). It might be argued that if we had paid more attention to their tax returns and less attention to their humble beginnings, or family pedigree, we’d have made a better choice.

Historically, rich guys have fared better than “commoners” in the oval office.

Three of the four Mt. Rushmore guys —Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt — rank among the 10 wealthiest presidents ever, even though two of them, Jefferson and Roosevelt, constantly struggled to match their spending. The fourth man on the mountain, Log Cabin Abe, is the exception to the rule. He wasn’t poor when he became president, but he wasn’t wealthy either. An evaluation by financiers at the website Wall Street 24/7, puts Lincoln’s net worth of less than $1 million in today’s dollars.

That’s the same category with some of the worst, or at least, most non-descript presidents in U.S. history. Other commoners on the list include James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, James Garfield, Chester A. Arthur, Calvin Coolidge, professor Woodrow Wilson and Gen. U.S. Grant. Grant’s story is particular poignant. The hard-fighting general proved to be weak president who’s administration was racked by corruption. He lost what fortune he had after he left office, then desperately raced the clock against invasive throat cancer to finish his memoirs before he died. He just made it, completing the last page 5 days before he died. His family made $450,000 off its share of the royalties, enough to put it in high cotton in the late 19^th century.

That shows a certain amount of character, but the saga, taken as a whole, suggests Grant wasn’t presidential timber. His tenure bears this out.

Among the wealthiest presidents the only real clinker is the Great Engineer, Herbert Hoover. And most historians would suggest that Hoover was more a victim of circumstance than anything else.

Mitt Romney is no George Washington — you could take that a lot of ways — but if elected he would rank among the top 10 or 12 wealthiest men ever to hold the office.

His Republican competitors are far behind Romney’s estimated, nine-figure net worth, but most aren’t paupers either. Rick Santorum, with his tax return stuck back on his home computer, is probably the poorest. Ex-Doc Ron Paul, President Barack Obama and Newt Gingrich are all multimillionaires who wouldn’t have to work again even if they don’t get elected to the $400,000-a-year (plus a free house, jet, car, etc.) job. Tellingly, perhaps, both Obama and Gingrich made most of their money by leveraging the political positions for consulting fees or book royalties.

In any event, there’s going to be a rich guy in the White House, and he’s not going to be a man of the people. At least not of most people.

Nothing wrong with that.

Tucker Mitchell is Regional Editor of the Morning News. Contact him at 843-317-7250, or by email at cmitchell@florencenews.com