Our relationship with any given politician is something like a teenage girl’s relationship with her high-school boyfriend. We embrace him wholeheartedly—passionately even—and yet somehow we’re surprised when the promises made in return for five minutes of hot voting action are forgotten. Making political promises and keeping them are two entirely different skills. So let’s go ahead and embrace the disappointment. We won’t be respected in the morning. Consider the current Lothario in Chief. George W. Bush wormed into office promising a return to values and fiscal conservatism. I didn’t even vote for the guy and I still feel jilted.

Bush’s father was a slightly different kind of snake-oil salesman. While Bush the Younger made promises he had no intention or ability to keep, Bush the Elder—Yale patrician to the marrow—sold himself as a good ol’ Texas boy, a trick of image fakery akin to a rich guy buying a motorcycle. The thing was, Bush Sr.’s shiny new bike made America his helmetless bitch.

And Reagan—Grandpa Gipper with a calm and visionary hand—was not exactly who he appeared to be either. As the Great Communicator slept through his eight years in office, he did manage to negotiate arms reductions with the Soviets. But who voted on the arms exchange with Iran? Obviously, Grandpa was having an affair with a known enemy of the state and really wanted to keep his liaisons under wraps.

In the end, the best politicians are those who promise little but end up being faithful to the people anyway. Don’t tell Anna Karenina, but a passionless political marriage can still be a good one. Just as in 2000 and 2004, I have a feeling I’ll be voting for the boring candidate again in 2008.