Some, perhaps many, people will use the two recent political conventions and the ongoing campaign theater to assess the leadership capability of the U.S. President candidates. I don’t think that is valid approach.
The conventions are all about the candidates sharing their visions for our nation’s future, how they plan to achieve their visions, and “selling themselves” to the voting population.
There’s nothing wrong with that. But it doesn’t tell us much about how each candidate will actually lead once in office. Presidents need to build support in the legislative side of the government. They have to lead, inspire, and monitor the work of huge staffs who actually do the work on any Presidential initiative.
The conventions are also full of glorious speeches by party dignitaries about the candidate’s capability, vision, and worthiness to the office. This year, however, we got a surprise on the Republican side.
Mr. Cruz, choosing to not endorse his party’s candidate, drew all manner of comment and opinion. I’m not praising or condemning his decision. But he did raise a great leadership issue.
Do members of an organization/company owe their primary allegiance to the
division/department/staff in which they work, or to the greater good of the total
organization? Should, for example, managers fight for a bigger piece of the available
budget for their department when they know that the company would better spend
the money in another department?
Some members of the U.S. Congress have seemingly placed their allegiance to the party over the good of the nation. Witness Senate Majority Leader McConnell’s famous statement in 2011 that his biggest goal was to ensure President Obama isn’t re-elected. (In fairness, he did go on to talk about many national issues that needed to be solved.)
In a word, Mr. McConnell: NO. Congress’s only job is to govern the nation. You know, little things like a fully approved budget, reviewing and confirming/rejecting nominated Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, and addressing the many issues facing our nation. Party platforms and beliefs are critical to deciding HOW best to do that, and the cross party arguments are both healthy and necessary to obtain the best solution. But they must find SOME solution. Simply digging in and taking no action is childish….like little kids who threaten to hold their breath until they pass out rather than eat their vegetables at dinner.
In the fall elections, I suggest making your choices based on your perceived leadership ability of the candidates and ignore all the theater and show business of the campaigns and conventions.
The conventions are all about the candidates sharing their visions for our nation’s future, how they plan to achieve their visions, and “selling themselves” to the voting population.
There’s nothing wrong with that. But it doesn’t tell us much about how each candidate will actually lead once in office. Presidents need to build support in the legislative side of the government. They have to lead, inspire, and monitor the work of huge staffs who actually do the work on any Presidential initiative.
The conventions are also full of glorious speeches by party dignitaries about the candidate’s capability, vision, and worthiness to the office. This year, however, we got a surprise on the Republican side.
Mr. Cruz, choosing to not endorse his party’s candidate, drew all manner of comment and opinion. I’m not praising or condemning his decision. But he did raise a great leadership issue.
Do members of an organization/company owe their primary allegiance to the
division/department/staff in which they work, or to the greater good of the total
organization? Should, for example, managers fight for a bigger piece of the available
budget for their department when they know that the company would better spend
the money in another department?
Some members of the U.S. Congress have seemingly placed their allegiance to the party over the good of the nation. Witness Senate Majority Leader McConnell’s famous statement in 2011 that his biggest goal was to ensure President Obama isn’t re-elected. (In fairness, he did go on to talk about many national issues that needed to be solved.)
In a word, Mr. McConnell: NO. Congress’s only job is to govern the nation. You know, little things like a fully approved budget, reviewing and confirming/rejecting nominated Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, and addressing the many issues facing our nation. Party platforms and beliefs are critical to deciding HOW best to do that, and the cross party arguments are both healthy and necessary to obtain the best solution. But they must find SOME solution. Simply digging in and taking no action is childish….like little kids who threaten to hold their breath until they pass out rather than eat their vegetables at dinner.
In the fall elections, I suggest making your choices based on your perceived leadership ability of the candidates and ignore all the theater and show business of the campaigns and conventions.
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