John, I'll be my extremely cynical self here, but Helene was a golden God-given opportunity for Kamala to demonstrate the semblance of leadership and executive power. Monster storm coming ashore and passing through several battleground states forty days before the election, with a week's warning. This wasn't even slo-pitch, it was T-ball, all you have to do is swing the bat and you get a hit. Cut short your fund raising trip, spend Sat and Sun acting busy in Washington, work the phones in the FEMA office, meet with Buttigieg and Mayorkas, talk to the governors involved and go meet one on an air strip in the affected area, this is a gift to a struggling campaign.
And she whiffed. What's really frightening for me is that no one in her campaign or advisory group even saw this as an opportunity, apparently. Does she think she's running for President of the Galactic Union? C'mon, you have to at least posture that you give a flip about Americans.
Correct - I wasn't trying to imply that - my mind was just processing the discussion. Slowly I am doing more processing - in caveman days the leaders were all chosen based on merit - who will keep us safe and fed. DEI was not considered a desired approach. It wasn't until we got to monarchs/kings that we encountered incompetents as "leaders," who needed a committee to provide advice to the leader. Then the results were all over the map.
I think that the stale argument "A high level visit distracts resources" is far outweighed by the knowledge in those situations that the buck actually stops somewhere very nearby.
I agree, Martin. I thought about rebutting that argument in my article, but decided not to make the article longer by getting sidetracked down that path.
And, when you have a president or similar high-level person coming to visit, that is a sort of thing that can be managed by competent people.
This is one of those maddening aphorisms that is anything but true. The first part of "leadership" is "leader." You don't do that from the cheap seats.
In reference to why they are as they are; all your points are valid and one can think of examples of each one. There is, however, one more motivation to consider and that is just plain old mean girls/bully boys sadism. There is a fraction of our population that, given power and position, will use them to grind those without. Like thirteen year old kids burning the ants with a magnifying glass they are doing it simply because they are having a good time.
John, I'll be my extremely cynical self here, but Helene was a golden God-given opportunity for Kamala to demonstrate the semblance of leadership and executive power. Monster storm coming ashore and passing through several battleground states forty days before the election, with a week's warning. This wasn't even slo-pitch, it was T-ball, all you have to do is swing the bat and you get a hit. Cut short your fund raising trip, spend Sat and Sun acting busy in Washington, work the phones in the FEMA office, meet with Buttigieg and Mayorkas, talk to the governors involved and go meet one on an air strip in the affected area, this is a gift to a struggling campaign.
And she whiffed. What's really frightening for me is that no one in her campaign or advisory group even saw this as an opportunity, apparently. Does she think she's running for President of the Galactic Union? C'mon, you have to at least posture that you give a flip about Americans.
Very insightful comments Rick. Thanks or adding to the discussion.
I never thought of dictators as leaders.
That is why I put "leaders" in quotes in the first heading.
Correct - I wasn't trying to imply that - my mind was just processing the discussion. Slowly I am doing more processing - in caveman days the leaders were all chosen based on merit - who will keep us safe and fed. DEI was not considered a desired approach. It wasn't until we got to monarchs/kings that we encountered incompetents as "leaders," who needed a committee to provide advice to the leader. Then the results were all over the map.
I think that the stale argument "A high level visit distracts resources" is far outweighed by the knowledge in those situations that the buck actually stops somewhere very nearby.
I agree, Martin. I thought about rebutting that argument in my article, but decided not to make the article longer by getting sidetracked down that path.
And, when you have a president or similar high-level person coming to visit, that is a sort of thing that can be managed by competent people.
This is one of those maddening aphorisms that is anything but true. The first part of "leadership" is "leader." You don't do that from the cheap seats.
In reference to why they are as they are; all your points are valid and one can think of examples of each one. There is, however, one more motivation to consider and that is just plain old mean girls/bully boys sadism. There is a fraction of our population that, given power and position, will use them to grind those without. Like thirteen year old kids burning the ants with a magnifying glass they are doing it simply because they are having a good time.