What is more important than the impossible task of proving perfection on your parties side, is a willingness to seek out the mistakes and correct them; to improve; to monitor your integrity. In the face of the opposition bashing away and looking for any sign of weakness it is tempting to deny any fault at all, but still weak to ignore any places to improve. For a leader to inspire confidence, he must maintain a balance between claimed efficacy and a willingness to examine and adapt when changes will make a real impact;. Not because the opposition is demanding apologies for not adhering to their views, when their only cause is your destruction, and only when reason makes a strong case. I feel President Bush has done well by talking about the nuts and bolts of disaster relief, while acknowledging the current model needs work. This approach sells confidence in the current efforts and confidence that reasonable efforts will be made to do even better in the future. Of course there are those so hungry for a disaster to blame on the president, nothing will prevent their finding fault with the opposition while their party's errors are given a pass. I believe the public is getting better at seeing the honest work in the first approach and the deceit and political agenda of the latter. I've been reading 1776 by David McCullough. George Washington was a confident optimistic leader in public while in his personal conversations and correspondence he admitted great concern for the Patriot Army's success. He made several bad decisions in the defense of New York City; splitting his army against a superior force; picking the wrong leader for a post and then switching midstream which confused soldiers prior to battle; and overlooking a lesser used Long Island road which allowed the British to flank and surround his troops. Fortunately for Washington he didn't have a post battle press conference with CNN reporters loyal to the enemy demanding he admit he was a failure. No, he had done his honest best and he and his troops learned and grew better eventually defeating Britain, which was considered the period's military superpower. Though he made mistakes, he was still the best man available for the job. Though he did modestly tell congress he felt inadequate to the job, he put all into it's success. The enemy made many mistakes too, but if Washington had been dismissed for his lack of perfection, our history would be much different. Congress knew of his error's but saw past them to his leadership and intelligence, rather than using every opportunity to improve their political positions. Politicians today tend to look for anything that can tarnish the opponent, with no regard first for the facts, and no regard for damage to the country. The media plays along amplifying the agenda, to the detriment of the business at hand. More and more of us see through the shrill deceits of the knee jerk politicians. We see who is working for our safety and who is busy spouting whatever sounds good to their political circles. If they only knew how nutty, how empty their words are, how devoid of purpose and integrity they appear to the discerning public. |
