The original post got me thinking about hiring school superintendents and casting musicals (also ranking standardized test scores, American Idol, etc). Individuals are not interchangeable, sometimes not comparable -- nor are their talents and style, contributions, their looks, personalities, etc, nor the times and challenges through which they must pass. One thing I saw with school superintendents is that any qualified candidate is either right or wrong for any given job, depending on everything else (most of which will be unknown and uncontrollable.)

And leadership success is perception seen in a rear view mirror.

Read anything of Howard Gardner's on leadership, for example:
"Whether direct or indirect, leaders fashion stories: principally stories of identity. It is important that a leader be a good storyteller, but equally crucial that the leader embody that story in his or her life."

On that single score, it seems to me (as a yahoo just watching) that Barack Obama and John Edwards hold a distinct advantage over Hillary Clinton and John Kerry for president in '08, and that Al Gore is roaring back in contention with a better integrated story of who he really is and why we should care.