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Situation: talking about a president of a country. Only the incumbent one is okay. All other candidates are either too inexperienced or are simply stupid.

Question: How to describe this situation?

1) At the present moment I don't see anyone equal to him

2) At the present moment I don't see any adequate counterpart for him

3) At the present moment I don't see any right substitute for him

4) At the present moment I don't see any proper replacement for him

5) At the present moment I don't see any prospective successor to him

What's the right way?

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What's wrong with: "All the other candidates are either too inexperienced, or too stupid." – J.R. Sep 3 '12 at 10:24
@J.R. - Well, their low levels of experience and of intelligence are just examples. In the real situation they all are quite experienced and smart, however, all in all, they are still not equal to the incumbent one. – brilliant Sep 3 '12 at 11:03
1  
In that case, you could simply say "He is unequaled," or "He is unrivaled," instead of "None of the others are equal." unequaled (adj): superior to all others in performance or extent; unrivaled (adj): better than everyone or everything of the same type. (NOAD) – J.R. Sep 3 '12 at 11:08
@J.R. - I am afraid that both "unequaled" and "unrivaled" may have an "on all accounts" connotation, while my main meaning is more sort of "in the end" or "in the sum total", meaning that his rivals do have some qualities, in which they are greater than the incumbent, but if you sum up all of them, he is still superior. – brilliant Sep 3 '12 at 11:24

3 Answers

up vote 4 down vote

In that particular situation, I'd say he has no viable opponents.

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up vote 2 down vote

I would use "Presently" rather than "At the present mopment" - or "Currently" perhaps.

"Presently, he has no equal amongst his opponents" or, rearranging, "No one else [standing] is currently equal to the task"

or as Kevin said "He has no viable opponents"/"He is without viable opposition"

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up vote 1 down vote

One might also refer to “no worthy opponents”, “no significant challengers”, or “no plausible opposition”, besides previous suggestions.

Note, a previous answer hinted at replacing the loquacious “At the present moment” by presently or by currently. Any of currently, at the moment, at present will work as a replacement. Some people might use presently but others will object to it because presently is commonly used by different people in different senses: “At the present time; now; currently”, versus “Before long; soon”, which is to say, not now, not at present, but at some future time.

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