Haiti's president-elect, Michel Martelly, known universally to his countrymen as "Sweet Micky," is - let's be delicate about this - a new kind of political figure.
Wildly popular during his two-decade career as a singer, he was notorious for wearing a diaper during performances, for mooning his audiences and for gleefully leading his fans in obscene chants and taunts. Given that stage persona, Haitians barely batted an eye at revelations during this year's presidential campaign that Martelly used to snort cocaine and that several homes he owned in Florida were foreclosed on.
But the "Sweet Micky" of yore was gone last week when he arrived in Washington for meetings with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and international aid organizations. In his place was a spruced up president-elect, wrapped in a dark suit, sporting a sober tie and escorted by an entourage of thin-skinned advisers who bristled at questions about his past.
Martelly wants to be taken seriously. And thank goodness.
"Sometimes I feel like people don't give me credit - I didn't win the Lotto. There were 19 candidates, and I debated them and I beat them all," he said during a visit to The Post.
If ever a country needed no-nonsense leadership, it's Haiti right now. And if ever a country has suffered from an onslaught of political calamity combined with cataclysmic disasters, it's Haiti for the last, well, pick your time period.
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