Do NT's consider smarminess a positive trait for a leader?

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No.

I think that they consider social confidence, genuineness and friendliness to be positive traits.

These aren't the same as smarminess.
People are fickle and will complain and protest if a leader doesn't deliver (in a Democratic Government anyway).

The people ask:

"Is this leader interested in me and my problems?"
"Does this leader care about the people?"
"Do I agree with his/her policies?"


I have been lucky to meet someone who genuinely believed in his cause and was a fantastic leader. He genuinely helped and cared about people. He could talk to and engage with anyone he wanted. He inspired others. He accepted people. He had high emotional intelligence. You could tell just by looking at him that he loved his job. It wasn't just all rhetoric: he actually delivered. People achieved great things under his leadership. People who "shine" like him are unfortunately incredibly rare.

Yes, having good PR skills are important, but these are only half of the story.
The other half is skillful management, hard work, organisation and delivering promises.

I've since met other leaders. They weren't genuine like that man at all. They didn't inspire me. They were all smarmy with a capital "S".
Fake Fake Fake!

Exceedingly liberal paraphrase of Jeremiah--

"To be human is to be smarmy."

In some instances it's a form of parasitism. In order to attach oneself parasitically to another, one is required to smarm.

Strange as it may seem I have had people try to get all smarmy with me, as though I was a host and a parasite had understood the polite way to attach to the host is through smarminess. I just don't have the same social dictionary, saw it as parasitic and did the usual parasite removal stuff.

I just like typing the word "smarmy."

I wouldn't say Obama was smarmy, and Dubya just came across as stupid.

I'm in Scotland, so those in the US would have more exposure to these guys and may have a different impression.

It seems from recent Youtube videos that they're been trying to make Gordon Brown smarm, but he just can't do it. Someone behind the camera must be holding up a sign that says, "Smile now, Gordon!" and it just looks faked and freaky.

If you haven't seen International Sales Presidents in the corporate world, you ain't seen nothing yet. See my thread about it from last week, about the Vice President of Sales.