I'm watching rather a lot of The West Wing of late. In fact, of the 156 episodes I think I've now seen 149, which at 40 minutes a pop is... quite a lot of hours.

(That's Jimmy Smit from The West Wing with Barack Obama, from the west wing).

The West Wing is a stunning show for all sorts of reasons. The writing is sharp, the characters are well developed, the plot is consistently compelling and the realism is spot on. More than that though, I think it's worth watching because it actually focusses your attention on something worth focussing on: politics.

Now I know, I know, politics is boring and they're all the same and nothing gets done and yada yada yada. The reality isn't perfect, sure, but I think it's a hell of a lot better than some people think, and moreover, seeing as how we live in a democracy, it's a reality that you can change if you choose to.

The Presidential election here in Ireland is an interesting one because it involves people saying "I'd like to be the first citizen" in the full knowledge that their ability to affect change will be tiny. The Presidency is a ceremonial role, because we don't like the idea of an "executive" in this country.

Although... Let me ask you a question. What is it, exactly, about the idea of an executive that puts us off? The concentration of power, you say?* All very well, but we already have an executive - pound for pound, Enda Kenny has far more domestic power than Obama has. Obama can't be assured of support for any item in particular in the Senate, thanks to the lack of a whip system like we have, and that's the house the Democrats control. The House of Representatives is even worse - he has to get stuff that goes through that chamber past a Republican majority. Can you imagine Enda having to get bills past a Fianna Fáil or labour controlled house?

In actuality, our dear Taoiseach appoints all his own ministers**, and once appointed we can be pretty sure that what Chief Kenny says, he gets. (The same was also true, presumably, of Chiefs Cowen, Ahern and all the rest of them, lest you think I'm picking on poor Enda).

The Taoiseach should be directly elected. The fact that we continue to pretend that we have proportional representation is laughable - the whip system puts paid to the idea of any TD stepping out of line on anything but the most serious matter, and even then the structure of the house means that it's unlikely to make any difference. Enda Kenny was only voted for by something around 18,000 people, and yet has an office more powerful (in the national context) than the US President, who has to get around 70,000,000 votes. (Adjusted very roughly for population, that's about 50 times more than Kenny needed).

I'd like to see a proper race to be Taoiseach. Something like what we almost have for President, but with (how do I put this nicely...) more inspiring candidates. Will it ever happen? Not until people care that our current system has a pretty serious democratic deficit. Should we care? I don't know. But in a decade or so, when this whole crisis thing is over (fingers crossed and all that...) I think maybe we should talk about it. And you know, maybe we will.

*You don't say that? Tough! Go start your own damn blog if you want to put words in people's mouths.

**He can even have ministers from the opposition parties, if he likes. But the chances of that ever happening are pretty slim, I guess.