I am no fan of the vice president except when he was still in the news anchoring business. In my opinion, he was the best Pinoy TV news anchor of his time, if not for all time. He could cry or laugh or mumble or get lost in the middle of a spiel without ever losing face. His was a perfect sense of live broadcast timing that if ever there would be someone to be crowned as king of the "pregnant pause" that would be him! Too bad he opted out of his turf that now he must decide to use or not to use this gift of timing in a rather more dangerous way.

Leadership is not something that can be won in elections, with or without cheating. It is a moral position assumed exclusively by the leader, whether in or out of the formal power structure but always out of courage. Ninoy was more the leader of his generation than Marcos although he was in jail. There were US Presidents who, for some time, acted more like clowns trying to entertain their way to good public approval. After a defining moment in their presidency, however, they assumed the mantle of true leadership and never looked back. There is nothing that can prepare a person to hold the position. But it does take courage. More than anything, the job of a President requires character than political or economic skills.

Leadership is also more situational than deterministic, which partly explains why leadership roles are susceptible to usurpation by professional opportunists. For instance, our national situation today calls for drastic changes and so we need a "drastic" leader instead of a desperate one. By "drastic", of course, I mean a "transitional" leader. We all want to move on with our lives but for some reason we are, as a nation, suspended in a state of stalemate. Some people just don't want to get out of the way as if life mattered only in a political sense.

People trusted Noli on TV screen not because he can maintain his poise but because he was simply credible. The times call not for a skilled, master of economic theories and political calisthenics but for a credible leader. Credibility is supposed to be a staple in public office, but not at this juncture in our history. We sunk so low that there is virtually no higher political calling than to be a credible President. To be credible, I believe, is within Noli's personal arsenal. Not only does he have the numbers to prove his mandate, he has believability, which incidentally is the one factor that Gloria can never have following her admission of guilt.

Just one credible transitional President is what we need to restart the political engine. One who can oversee a fair charter change. One who can clean the mess at COMELEC. One who has no interest whatsoever to any position in the next republic. Practically almost everything that Gloria promises to do but has not the credibility to pursue, these are what Noli could do, if he dares to.

The spiel has been written. All that's needed is a credible face to deliver the blow. But will he? The answer to that question, I believe, could lead to his birth as a leader or to his segue to a total fade out.