Thursday.....Politics.....If You Come To A Fork In The Road, Take It.

Any major bookstore will offer a number of books on leadership, and Christian bookstores the same. A dearth of leadership was a prime cause, no pun intended, in the recent financial collapse. Owners and CEOs of corporations historically were leaders and those who followed were the employees. The employee has effectively been taken out of the equation today, even to the point of being a liability; the CEO now leads the shareholders. The results in productivity, ethics and general happiness is predictable. One might find a number of mistakes that Winston Churchill made but he was the epitome of a leader at a time when England would not survive without one. President Bush (W) made more than his allotment of mistakes, and no one could have predicted from his adventuresome and irresponsible past how strong he would be when needed after our country was viciously attacked, but he was, and this evidenced by the roaring reception he received from our military upon his surprise visit to Baghdad. Robert E. Lee generated adoration from the entire South, Stonewall Jackson fear from his enemies and U. S. Grant great appreciation from his President. There seems to be no one character trait or personality required as Patton and Jackson were opposites in many ways. It doesn't even take an intellectual acumen for as Yogi Berra cautioned Even Napolean had his Watergate. He was a leader of the Yankees and would have made a good politician, In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is (I'm still trying to figure out that one.) He would have made a good liberal voter today You better cut the pizza in four pieces, because I'm not hungry enough to eat six. Wednesday's Wall Street Journal offered a book review on leadership in industry and that book highlighted Milton Hershey as a man who was driven by fulfilling his responsibilities to those who worked for him. There's no shortage of politicians who want to lead today. As I write this, an XM radio commercial from a stand-up comedy routine ventured into the topic. The comedian talked about a peculiarity of his in answering in the affirmative when, while shopping, a customer in the store mistakes him for a sales clerk. A man came up to him and asked if he had a certain pair of pants in a size 32. He responded I'll look in the back and was pleased with himself for finding a pair and giving it to the customer only to have the customer change his mind. His response was an uncomplimentary remark which the customer took offense to and went to see the manager, who upon returning fired the the comedian who in turn said You can't fire me. I don't even work here. The manager leaned up close and said Cool it. I don't work here either. I do the same thing, particularly at Barnes & Noble, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo? I can order it for you but I have Andrew McCarthy's "The Grand Jihad, How Islam and The Left Sabotage America, it's 20% off and you can save another 10% if you sign up for a "Member Card.". This modus operandi must, in some way, be how Hillary Clinton became our Secretary of State. The Democratic party has not one solid leader that I am aware of, former Georgia Senator Zell Miller being the last and pollster Pat Cadell the closest today of any significance. If ever there was an opportunity for leaders to arise, it is now in this party but the first thing it would require is a determined and vocal opposition to the Clinton, Alinsky, Pelosi and Reid cartel that has destroyed it as a viable second major party. Another Anwar Sadat is needed in the Middle East, another Thatcher in England, another Hammarskjold at the United Nations.. Barack Obama's charisma was a faux leadership and even that withered by a narcissism and arrogance in failure. The Republican party has a number of candidates for a number of positions and I'll be looking for them to rise to the top. They won't do that by condescending to an increasingly awakened, agitated and discerning constituency. Show me the money is out; show me honor is in. At this point in time, South Carolina Jim Demint has passed the test and hopefully others will step forward!