Folks,
I think we can close this thread with my concluding remarks:
I followed the instructions on electrum.org to install the python version of the wallet. Running it from the download without installing works fine. This means there are no libs missing. The inability to find the executable and the error when I provide the path to the executable means the devs who did the package install did a sloppy job. I am not a full time python developer, but I write enough of it. I can fix the install myself, but nobody will pay me so I am not going to waste time.
The advice for subsequent users is to run without installing.
Thanks everybody for the comments.