It seems like politicians — Republicans, this year — constantly declare their interest in running for the Presidency. This time around the list of “candidates” is enormous. To name a few of the declared candidates, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, John Davis, and Fred Karger have thrown their hat in the ring. Prospective candidates range from Donald Trump to Herman Cain to Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney.

This ambiguity — is he running, is he not running, if he’s not running what is he doing on every Fox News talk show? — should frustrate you to no end.

The Presidency of the United States of America is a job. It is a public service. The man (or woman) elected on November 6, 2012 will swear an oath to uphold the Constitution, defend it and look after the interests of the whole body of American people protected by it.

And that is a weighty charge.

But we continually — with increasing frequency — allow public figures to bandy about waving their arms, trying to get as much attention as possible before the arrival of the short months that precede caucuses and primaries. The first step in a run for the presidency, in this “enlightened” modern age of ours, is to form an exploratory committee.

Why anyone would give any money to a person so he can “explore” a run for president is beyond me. Candidates should devote the two years before presidential elections to convincing the American people why they should cast their votes for them. They should be spent drumming up popular support for a potential presidential administration rather than “testing the waters,” trying to determine whether enough support for a viable run has already accumulated.

When I first talked to last year’s Opinion section editor about writing as a columnist for this paper, he asked me, “So, do you want to write for us?” My reply? A noncommittal “Sure.” He looked back at me and said something like, “No, do you want to write for us?”

“Gotta want it?” I asked. “Gotta want it,” was the reply.

We should say the same to every man who has even the slightest aspiration to be President. The office is far too important and far too powerful to be left to a man who is either indifferent to its power or who would rather passively wait for the voting public to, unprompted by some show of ability, bestow upon him their confidence.

Mike Huckabee, like Mitt Romney a candidate from 2008, recently stated he was not going to run for President in 2012. Nevertheless, he also told Politico that he “would have made a fine president.”

If that’s true, why not run? If he would be a good president to lead this country, why shouldn’t he run? Perhaps unlike marathons or other athletic races, the presidential race — political races in general — are not meant to be run solely so the competitor can win.

Instead, maybe the object of running in a political race is to run in a political race, or at least keep the other candidates honest about themselves and the constituency’s problems. Only by running the race can a candidate — or athlete — discover, find and demonstrate his true abilities.

Who are the People to say whether or not a person should be running or not? If they have any authority to decide that question it will be exercised at the ballot box, on a night in early November that falls every four years. Interested politicians should concentrate on interacting with people and creating support, instead of observing them, waiting for their support to materialize.