Can a politician ever be considered ethical or moral?

Can a politician ever be considered ethical or moral?  John raises this point as a comment to my previous post about Barack Obama – implied is that power corrupts and that by definition the nature of politics makes principle based leadership impossible.  Removing any possible cynicism from the discussion what makes a leader ethical?  Fred Kiel and Doug Lennick provide an interesting perspective to this question in their book “Moral Intelligence” which I have quoted elsewhere on this blog.  I think their perspective can be helpful in the political world as well. 

Cognitive intelligence (the ability to learn) and technical competence (the ability to do the job) are two threshold competencies that are seen as the very minimum competencies required to “play the game”.  What differentiates individuals though are two differentiating competencies called emotional intelligence and moral intelligence.  Most people are familiar with emotional intelligence but the idea of moral intelligence is just beginning to make its presense felt in discussions such as this. 

Barack Obama has both cognitive intelligence and technical ability – if he didn’t he would not have had the potential that voters and financial backers recognised before he became a US Senator.  Now that he is a Senator, however, what differentiates him to the point that people are prepared to vote for him as a US Presidential candidate?  I think it is his emotional intelligence and moral intelligence.  Now neither competency requires that he be perfect.  What they require is that he is able to establish meaningful relationships with those with whom he interacts and that he uses his abilities to act upon his moral intelligence – which is more than just knowing right vs wrong but where honesty, integrity, compassion and forgiveness play a role in all facets of your life, be they personal or professional.   Will he have to make compromises in the inetrest of the greater good?  Yes.  Will those compromises render him unethical or immoral?  Assuming there is a rationality to those compromises, I don’t think so. 

Think about this for a moment:  The word ethics comes from the greek ethos or values and to be ethical means that you act upon your values.  Morality is something else.  It’s a by-product of ethos and comes from the latin mores.  Mores means character.  I think Barack Obama is both ethical and moral and yet he will be required to compromise on both in the interests of collaborating with all stakeholders – even those with significantly different views to his.   Do you agree with my thinking or have I got it completely wrong?  Ethical leadership is inspiring.  Be inspired.