NGalitzine said:
On what basis do you judge him to have done a superb job?...
3 instances:
First, he showed great courage:
(1) His coup, overthrowing Ion Antonescu, who was a very bad man. Plenty of other kings, particularly figureheads, would have just sat back and let others overthrow him.
(2) He did what he could to try to stop the Communists from taking over Romania, even when it was clear that the Communists would murder him if they wanted to (look at what they did in Bulgaria). He refused to sign laws that they passed.
Second, people love him:
(3) He's now one of the most popular leaders in Romania, and huge crowds turned out for him when he came to Romania in 1992. If he hadn't been an admirable leader, people wouldn't be so attached to him. How many people show up to see King Constantine or Jimmy Carter?
Third, he just showed that he is a fundamentally decent man (and when the King shows great decency, that just sets a standard of behavior for others to follow; when one of the few powers that a figurehead King has is the power of moral authority, this is important):
(4) In WWII, I see that he visited American prisoners in Romanian prisons and treated them with great kindness and even mocked Romania's Nazi occupiers. How many leaders would do that with prisoners of a country with which one's country is at war?
King Michael a truly wonderful man and any country would be very fortunate to have him as King. He's sure better than what we've got now in the US.