List of Some National Leaders

During this past presidential campaign, just as Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson was trying to ratchet up his momentum, he was interviewed by MSNBC's Chris Matthews.  Matthews, in all likelihood suspecting that Johnson was ignorant in a lot of things outside his ideology, threw out what on the surface seemed to be a "softball" question: who is your favorite world leader?  You can take any country outside the United States...just tell me one of their leaders that you like.  Anyone. Anywhere.  Gary Johnson couldn't answer the question.  When I saw that, I thought, yeah, the dude's a real ignoramus, all right...and then I realized that I wasn't too knowledgeable about the heads of the various national governments, either...

Most countries have an official head of "state"...a more or less ceremonial role...and the effective head of the government...the real power.  In the British Commonwealth nations like the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, Queen Elizabeth is the head of state.  In the United States, however, the two roles both are taken by the president.  Russia's head of state, President Putin, actually exerts the real power while the Prime Minister functions as Putin's surrogate.  But you're waiting for a list of the effective government leaders, right? Well, here is a short one...sorry if I left out your favorite country...

United States: Barack Obama---President
Canada: Justin Trudeau---Prime Minister
Mexico: Enrique Nieto---President
Brazil: Michel Temer---President
United Kingdom: Theresa May---Prime Minister
France: François Hollande---President
Germany: Angela Merkel---Chancellor
Spain: Mariano Rajoy---President
Russia: Vladimir Putin---President
South Africa: Jacob Zuma---President
Egypt: Abdel Fattah el-Sisi...President
Israel: Benjamin Netanyahu---Prime Minister
India: Narendra Modi---Prime Minister
China: Xi Jinping---Gen. Secr. of the Communist Party
Japan: Shinzoo Abe--Prime Minister
Australia: Malcolm Turnbull---Prime Minister

There, that's a starter list for you in case you're thinking anytime of running for president.  But be warned, reader: by 2020 this list is certain to drastically change...