He's the guy you'd like to sit next to on a six-hour airline trip. He's the guy that you'd like to discuss soccer, nuclear technology, and the best way to buy a washing machine.
He is...for all practical purposes....the most ordinary and regular guy in Germany today. The amazing thing? He's not faking it....he is that regular normal guy, without any sleaze or deceit. He'll admit that he can't sing....can't dance....doesn't know an awful lot about banks...and always asks a hundred questions that a regular person would really like to hear the answer on some issue.
Gunther kinda runs a dozen shows....or you get that impression at times. He is the moderator of Germany's Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. He runs Five against Jauch, which is a game-show for evening audiences. Then there was the Stern TV program where he laid out stories in a pretty simple format and asked the kind of questions regular people would have asked....avoiding what elite university dimwits would have done. He ran the Big IQ Show for a while. And then there was the evening sports show which probably had a significant number of guys watching. Currently, he somehow convinced the Channel One folks to let him be the political moderator of the 9:45 show.....which tended to be an extremely serious on political topics....but half the nation hated the slanted views that they saw......then Gunther arrived, and turned it into the corner pub session where it all made sense to the regular German citizen.
I'm guessing Gunther would immediately hold up a hand and suggest that he's already doing three shows currently, and this Germany President show would be just too much, and maybe some wording in his contract with the Channel One folks would forbid government work.
The truth is....Germany has been waiting for it's favorite son to arrive for the past forty years. They've wanted this guy who they could trust with just about anything. They've wanted a guy who actually talked about the local people on the street, or the reason why the Bahn is really screwed up, or take a complicated process like taxes and explain it where Oma in her kitchen can actually understand things. They've been waiting for the guy who proudly talks about good things in German society, culture, and life. They've waited for a guy who is fairly honest in his assessment of things. If your bratwurst is too greasy....he'll try to be honest about it but also hint that there's always potential for improvement, and not make you cry over the poor bratwurst you created.
The truth is....there are five million German women who would go nuts if Gunther were to stop in front of their house and profess he had car trouble. They would offer a four-course meal in a matter of an hour, and offer to let him shower in the family bathroom if necessary. They'd pull out the one and only bottle of fancy German wine they have, which they paid fifty-Euro for at some local fancy wine-tasting episode. And when Gunther was all fixed up and ready to leave....that light kiss on the cheek....would likely transform this lucky woman into a delirious situation.
So I'm suggesting this radical move in German government circles.....hire Gunther, and let him be President, while running the Sunday night moderator show on politics and continue to let him run Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. He might ask for fancy bottled water, and he might require a helicopter to get him back and forth from the studios to the President's office. It'd be worth it though.
Give the favorite son.....the job that he really deserves. And don't worry about dishonesty. If anyone in the opposition parties were even to suggest of anything against Gunther.....five million German women would tear into the political parties and shake them up.
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