Political parties are a bit like the tribe of Israel coming out of Egypt. They know they need to go towards the Promised Land but they get thoroughly cheesed off by the fact it requires hard work, risk, reflection, sacrifice and selflessness.
Many of them would prefer to go back to Egypt - in other words, pick a leader who will stop them moving forward or take them backwards.
The qualities of the leader are a mysterious mixture. William Hague seemed a good choice on paper in 1997, but he just didn't have the personal experiences and insight required.
There is such a thing as a 'collective intelligence' - I think in this case there is only one candidate Kenneth Clarke. He has the mysterious admixture. Rigid attachment to doctrine is not a good quality in a leader because he has to govern those who do not share his or her ideology. It's another example of going backwards.
In the same way there was only one candidate when John Smith died. Only the Labour Party were so desperate to get back into power they voted for him.
My theory is that it doesn't matter which political system you have, the leader always stays in charge until the people/members have exhausted their capacity for doing the wrong thing.
Johnny Smith didn't die! he just went into a coma! :P
/inappropriatedeadzonenerdresponse
Commenting by HaloScan
