And, of course, Edwards, Dodd, Biden, Kucinich, Vilsack, and whomever else decides to poke their noses in.
Let's just hope the Dems can figure out a solid candidate without (as usual) self-destructing. With Republicans like Brownback running, it's almost a moral necessity ...
(via Les)
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I've been hearing clips of Hillary's announcement today. As a former student of voice acting, allow me to say that she sounds very insincere.
Of course, it's possible that she's completely sincere, but her reading comes across as artificial. One of my teachers said that when reading a commercial, you have to really believe what you're saying. Hillary doesn't sound as if she does. It sounds like she's trying to sound as if she does.
Not very inspiring, I'm afraid.
Adams has something of a point -- your "flip-flop" may be my "reasoned re-evaluation of the situation based on better data." Your "poll-reading" may be my "staying in touch with the sense of the populace."
Of course, either extreme is no good for a true leader. You do want someone who has enough convictions to stick to a difficult course, yet is flexible enough to modify their thinking as new data comes in. Neither obstinacy nor indecision is a leadership trait. Similarly, we do want our leaders to listen to us -- but we also want them to lead us -- making decisions based solely on what the polls say makes me wonder why we we would bother having representatives, but paying no attention to what the people are saying is probably isn't being very representative either.
In some ways, it's not unlike what I, as a manager, look for in subordinate managers -- a blend of independence and risk-taking, but an alignment with the goals of the organization and my higher-level directives. Someone who can follow direct instruction, but who I also trust to be able to do the right thing without my having to micro-manage them. If they disagree with what I've instructed, I expect them to convince me otherwise -- and if they do something I don't want, it will either stand on its merits, or I'll be firing them.
If our "public servants" operated in that fashion, I don't think we'd have too much to bitch about.
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