Monday, November 28, 2005
Better late....
I notice some of the 'big guns' are finally calling for Bush to emulate FDR's practices ... which are not signs of genius but just normal leadership practices.
Any competent teacher, salesman or leader follows these rules: (1) Tell people what we're going to do for you and why. (2) Explain why this is better than the other product, candidate or alternative. (3) After we've started, tell people what we've done so far and what remains to be done; and encourage them to stay with the course.
For whatever strange reason -- Christianity, aphasia, "methods and sources", incompetence -- Bush has constantly failed to do these basic things. And nobody in his administration has cared enough to fix the problem; or perhaps somebody wanted to do the right thing, but was knocked down by Rove's electoral engineering. I don't know the cause, and I really don't want to know.
In any case, I'm glad the 'big guns' are finally realizing what's wrong. Ahem. Ahem.
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Addendum: Bush's speech today on immigration did fulfill those basic principles of leadership and communication, leaving aside questions of the seriousness of the policy change. Maybe someone in the admin has figured out what's needed after all! Unfortunately, it might be too late to pick up the pieces on the Iraq war, given that it's been running for two years with a badly stated initial premise and no proper 'interim reports'. He's allowed the enemy media to define all the terms and win all the arguments. ¶ 7:06 AM
Any competent teacher, salesman or leader follows these rules: (1) Tell people what we're going to do for you and why. (2) Explain why this is better than the other product, candidate or alternative. (3) After we've started, tell people what we've done so far and what remains to be done; and encourage them to stay with the course.
For whatever strange reason -- Christianity, aphasia, "methods and sources", incompetence -- Bush has constantly failed to do these basic things. And nobody in his administration has cared enough to fix the problem; or perhaps somebody wanted to do the right thing, but was knocked down by Rove's electoral engineering. I don't know the cause, and I really don't want to know.
In any case, I'm glad the 'big guns' are finally realizing what's wrong. Ahem. Ahem.
-----
Addendum: Bush's speech today on immigration did fulfill those basic principles of leadership and communication, leaving aside questions of the seriousness of the policy change. Maybe someone in the admin has figured out what's needed after all! Unfortunately, it might be too late to pick up the pieces on the Iraq war, given that it's been running for two years with a badly stated initial premise and no proper 'interim reports'. He's allowed the enemy media to define all the terms and win all the arguments. ¶ 7:06 AM
