dagblog - Comments for "Help Me Sort This Out"

Paul Begala was one of the

AmericanDreamer — Sat, 29 Sep 2012 13:45:27 +0000

In reply to I think Trope supplied the

Paul Begala was one of the people who kicked B Clinton's ass to his face, told him when he was wrong and needed to change course or do something he wasn't otherwise going to do. People at the Commanding Heights who are somehow able to maintain some semblence of their own fallability, and earnestly desire to avoid bad mistakes, will respond to experienced truth tellers like Begala who have real standing not by firing them but by listening to them.

I worked for the chair of a congressional committee some time ago. There were two people working in his personal or committee office who had both the standing and the guts to tell him privately to his face when he was wrong. (I wasn't one of them. I don't know if I would have had I had a longer working relationship with him than I did, which was a bit over 3 years, but I didn't.) One was the staff director, who later became his wife. The other was a long-time aid who the boss knew thought the world of him and loved him.

Here as in so many other ways, the TV show The West Wing was insightful in those episodes showing Bartlet's chief of staff and longtime friend Leo at times telling him he was wrong or FOS, and the kind of interplay that can lead to.

Any presidential candidate who surrounds him or herself with ciphers is someone the voting public should, if they can somehow learn this about the candidate before the election (which good reporting can sometimes bring out as an established tendency), respond to with alarm. Savvy political insiders know that a candidate's spouse often is the person who has the most standing and ability to save them from themselves when the need arises, which is why instead of ignoring the spouse as some adornment or whatever they will try to develop a relationship with them.

I think Trope supplied the

Michael Maiello — Sat, 29 Sep 2012 13:21:42 +0000

In reply to You could be right, des, but

I think Trope supplied the missing part of the answer... When you're constantly surrounded by people who believe that being around you is a potential path to prosperity, you tend to be surrounded by people who never call you out. Even when you know you're messing up, the people around you are giving the thumbs up. O e of the tricks in life, and certainly one I haven't mastered, is figuring out that not all praise and fawning is genuine or deserved. He's not there.

I like to think that they

stillidealistic — Sat, 29 Sep 2012 05:33:41 +0000

In reply to I just wonder how long anyone

I like to think that they will become irrelevant, but 2010 makes me wonder. So many of those whackos came into office that year. Do people realize what a mistake they made? Or are they hoping for more? I just don't know.

I just wonder how long anyone

cmaukonen — Sat, 29 Sep 2012 04:59:16 +0000

In reply to Help Me Sort This Out

I just wonder how long anyone is going to be able to take the republican part seriously as a political entity when they keep running ding bats and radical idealogs for office.

There really is a serious risk of them going the way the Federalists and Wigs did.

You could be right, des, but

stillidealistic — Sat, 29 Sep 2012 02:59:42 +0000

In reply to I think he's a smart guy,

You could be right, des, but jeez...Is he just so in denial that he doesn't see what a laughing stock he is?

How could anyone with a shred of self-respect not be humiliated by the caricature he has become?

That thing the other day with the chanting - seriously? Is he REALLY that insecure? Does he not see what a dufus he looks like?

I'm pretty sure he thought so

stillidealistic — Sat, 29 Sep 2012 02:54:58 +0000

In reply to You've made some fine

I'm pretty sure he thought so at one point...just not sure he still thinks so. He HAS to be trying to lose this. Could he possibly be this incompetent otherwise?

Here's hoping Dreamer!

stillidealistic — Sat, 29 Sep 2012 01:21:15 +0000

In reply to Those who've been through

Here's hoping Dreamer!

"Get your facts first, then

stillidealistic — Sat, 29 Sep 2012 01:18:38 +0000

In reply to OKAY, Let us discuss these

"Get your facts first, then you can feel free to distort them later"

Gotta love it!

But has it EVER been this bad? I know everyone spins - but seriously! This guy is just BRAZEN - but they won't let their campaign be dictated by the fact checkers!

I'm hoping the American people aren't that stupid, or don't hate Obama that much.

Anecdotally, I know of

stillidealistic — Sat, 29 Sep 2012 01:14:45 +0000

In reply to Stilli, Agree with

Anecdotally, I know of several people who cannot, in good conscience, vote for either, Romney because he belongs to a cult, and Obama because he's a socialist and probably not even an American, so they just aren't voting this time. Fortunately they are all repubs...

I totally agree with this,

Elusive Trope — Sat, 29 Sep 2012 00:34:44 +0000

In reply to I think he's a smart guy,

I totally agree with this, but would add a few things.

The Prosperity Gospel: Romney is the Mormon version of this, but it is no less real. A lot of people got rich offering some philosophical / spiritual guidance to non-religious (ie not affiliated with a institutional religion) individuals who got filthy rich in the dot com boom. It is in our human nature to try and figure out the reason why good and bad things happen to us. Serendipity does not sit well with us. So we get books with a title like "Why do bad things happen to good people."

If someone like Romney finds himself with more money than he knows what to do with, the adoring wife, the five healthy boys who reflect what a wonderful father he is, etc etc than the conclusion can only be that somehow God shines his blessing on Romney than the family struggling in the trailer park.

The CEO Syndrome: this is part of the "yes sir" syndrome, but the added factor is that one takes credit for the hard work of those below you - from the VPs just below you and part of your excutive circle, and the grunts who prepare the reports for the VPs and do the research and develop the PowerPoint presentations.

An outcome of this "taking credit" is that CEOs see they are more capable than they really are. Because they are CEO and no one ever tells them they're just average or whatever, they begin to think they're brillant. At the same time this happening they begin to rely more and more on the support to provide them the reports, to complete the tasks. Like a muscle not used and goes into atrophy, the ability to handle the little details done by others for so many years slips away.

The Smooze Crowd: To really understand Romney, one only has to watch that clip of him singing America the Beautiful

This is the guy at his mansion hosting a little get together with a few 50 or 100 other uberrich friends, and everyone claps and laughs and clinks their champagne glasses in approval. For most of us, when we go up on karaoke night and drop a bomb, not only the strangers, but our friends are letting us know we just stank up the joint. In Romney's world, where every social event is also a business network event, honesty is the last thing you will hear.