Whoever gets elected, if they made a pragmatic centralist regime with a cabinet of all the talents they would pour oil on troubled waters (err, not good, too Exxon like). The mark of a leader then would stamp his approval or his own decision by being the equal or greater than the intellects of everyone in that room. 'W' never could do that. That's what I mean about a clever Ivy Leaguer, not from the upper classes but one with the common touch.
Being smart and a good orator is not an upper class elitist thing. I imagine working class whites are often scared when they see 'uppity' Ivy League blacks. Colin Powell though, worked his way up through the ranks. He got through it and he's a lovely man. Can you imagine the trouble he must have had on the battlefield with his first commissions and some hard as nails NCOs wanting to usurp him? I imagine Barack has been through all that too, in a way, and suffered all the hostility but I think he could be great, another FDR or Kennedy. Just get the best advisors, left or right but you, sir, you have the balls to step up to the plate and take the responsibility. I hope all the world and its extremists, home and abroad, get behind the next president. Machiavelli said it is better for a leader to be feared, no, it's better to be loved but that doesn't make one a pushover. The next leader needs a solid mandate otherwise the bickering will never stop. That happened here in UK with John Major in the early 1990s. Nice guy, maybe too nice, maybe lacking talent, he struggled with a poor majority. Then we got Tony (an extremely able man) who was all things to all people but that approach can mean that you have no principles and end up becoming popularist (left) and corrupt (big business money). Yes, have the ideologues along in this cabinet but say we are dealing with real politik not political fiction. A real leader would then defeat advisor opinion deadlock and stamp his mark. The top guy is more important than ever, it's not just titular.
