Why Can't We Have President Zelensky?

I've seen the occasional remark that someone would rather have had President Zelensky deliver the US State of the Union than President Brandon, but actually going a little farther, it seems like we'd do better with Zelensky in the Oval Office on a day to day basis as well. He isn't native born, but on the other hand, based on what I hear, his English is better than President Brandon's. Maybe there's a loophole.

The simultaneous translation of the speech above, an address to Ukraine on the morning of the war's seventh day, has Churchillian echoes, not least because it's utterly without bombast. He's speaking realistically about the situation on the ground and making the entirely justified observation that the Russian invasion has unified Ukraine the most it's been in 30 years, given the country a national purpose and national consciousness, and indeed acknowledging the place of Jews in that national identity. It's a piece of rhetoric well worth study.

I also get the sense that he feels like they've turned the corner. Western military observers have been reluctant to declare victory, but from the start, they've noted that Putin failed to occupy major cities within 48 to 72 hours. A few suggested Putin had already lost the war just on that basis; others said he'd lose if Ukraine holds out for ten days. As of this morning, it's been seven, and they'll pretty clearly make it to ten.

The anaysis I'm seeing is that the 40-mile long convoy that's been "looming" near Kyiv is a stalled line of logistical equipment carrying fuel, food, and ammunition for tanks, but this can't reach the tanks and is slowly being picked off by Ukrainian drones, infantry, and guerillas. I see other estimates that Russia has committed about 80% of the 190,000 troops that had been massed at the Ukraine border, with no result. Yet other observers ask why Russian bombers, which could discharge cruise missiles into Ukraine from Russian territory, haven't done so, and the answer appears to be that the Russians have run out of cruise missiles.

So right now, two of the three most powerful world leaders appear incompetent, feckless, even delusional, and they're both being badly outclassed by a former standup comic at the head of a third-rate power. Heck, I'll bet there are Canadians who are jealous, too.