Running from ghosts of the past?

It is not fanciful to assume that people in public life may have skeletons in their closets. It is also not unlikely that they do not want to come face to face with the ghosts of their pasts, especially when faced with charges of corruption or impropriety.

So Brazilian President Michel Temer should be complimented for his honesty, as he has publicly acknowledged the presence of ghosts, if not skeletons specifically, in his official residence. As Temer’s immediate predecessor in Alvorada Palace, Dilma Rousseff, was impeached for corruption, he may well be truly spooked by the prospect of any leftover dark secrets. Moving back to his old haunt — the vice-president’s residence — now gives him more than a ghost of a chance of surviving his own graft charges.

Ghosts are not uncommon in presidential residences. Even the White House has been dealing with Lincoln’s apparition for a while now, besides a slew of other presidential spectres.

Harry Truman even wrote, “I sit here in this old house and work on foreign affairs…all the while listening to the ghosts walk up and down the hallway and even right in here in the study.… I can just imagine old Andy (Jackson) and Teddy (Roosevelt) having an argument over Franklin (Roosevelt).” Of course, many believe that an evil spirit is now resident in the White House and needs to be speedily exorcised.