Do you want the people that you vote for to be creative? A lot of voters want just the opposite: they want their candidates to be predictable. They want them to vote the way they said they would. Creativity: Isn't that what happens when they start to compromise their principles, when they give in to the realities of actual governing?
During a campaign, calling someone "creative" is one short step away from "liar" -- as in, "that campaign ad was pretty creative with the truth." The least visible creativity in any presidential campaign comes from the professional campaign advisers, the folks who craft the message and spin the debates and plan the strategy in front of big maps of the electoral college numbers. The candidates who stay "on message" are the ones who win, and god forbid that your VP pick improvises and says something a tiny bit creative.
Because I'm a pragmatist, I actually do think that the most effective politicians are creative -- at resolving different views, at negotiating, at responding to unexpected crises. I'm just not sure that's what all voters want. The liberal base and the conservative base probably want the least creativity; the moderate pragmatists accept that effective governance requires creative compromise.
The most exciting creativity in politics comes from the people. All of us decide what is important, what we want, and how we want to get there. Then, the democratic process translates our collective decisions into political winners and losers. It's called "representative government" because our elected officials are supposed to represent the will of the people. Creativity to the people!
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