Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Leadershi*


One could argue that the minimum requirement to be called a leader is that you don't wait for your Vice President to become so embarrassed by your position on a prominent national issue (gay marriage) that he takes control, forcing you to meekly follow. President Obama glibly said that Vice President Biden "got over his skis" when he came out in support of gay marriage. Actually, Biden displayed leadership. I understand why the President didn't recognize it.

On the Republican side, Romney is like a bag that's half snakes and half candy. When you put your hand in, you never know what you're getting. Romney might be awesome. I like the general idea of putting a turnaround expert in the oval office at a time when we need one. But the reality is that we don't know what we're getting with Romney. He is, after all, a robot that professes a deep belief in magic. Good luck predicting how that would shake out.

President Obama is getting a lot of credit for killing Bin Laden. But how much credit should we give to luck? It was lucky timing that our intelligence people located Bin Laden during Obama's term. And if no one knew for sure that Bin Laden was at the compound before the attack was launched, the President was guessing. He guessed right, but guessing isn't a repeatable skill. And realistically, you and I would have made the same decision to launch a strike. 

In theory, the United States is protected from revolution because we have the option of voting out the bums we don't like. The reality, which is sinking in, is that our only option is to replace bums with bums. As long as no candidate feels the need to be philosophically consistent, or to base decisions on data, we don't have a functional government.

Emphasis mine. Wish I'd said that. This is from Scott Adams's blog - I ripped off the title, too. Just to be painfully obvious, the * does not hide a "P."

Scott goes on, and you should read the whole thing. I'm for thinking he goes off the reservation at times when he proposes something, but one needs to keep in mind that his whole reason for posting is to get people thinking and talking. This, he does quite well.

2 comments:

lisa said...

The only thing to really say is we are screwed anyway you look at!

lotta joy said...

From George Washington forward, the only leaders we get are the ones that are pushed upon us. Votes are a conglomeration of money on one hand, and free bus rides to the voting booths on the other.