Tony Blair's NPR "Exit Interview"

NPR ran an "exit interview" with British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Friday. It's an interesting interview as his decade long duties as PM draw to a close next month. What strikes me every time I hear Mr. Blair is his eloquence and wit. In my opinion, Tony Blair is a most eloquent practitioner of spoken English. I think the British parliamentary system "selects" for a well spoken, witty leader. Not only does the PM have to represent the country in matters domestic and foreign, but every week that Parliament is sitting, the PM must spend half an hour answering questions from Members of Parliament (MPs) in an exercise known as Prime Minister's Questions. Prime Minister's Questions has become a very popular show on the C-SPAN network. Many parliamentary bodies around the world have copied this convention. It would be interesting to see how our current crop of U.S. presidential candidates would fare in such a system.