The kind of intelligence a politician needs…or why I hope Barack Obama becomes the next President
In the last Democratic Presidential debate before the Iowa caucuses, there was a designated “You Tube moment”, which you can see, on You Tube:
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It was probably damaging for Hillary Clinton, because of her initial reaction (“I want to hear this”). It certainly wasn’t her day in general, but she should have been able to see that this was a good question for him (and a bad one for her). The easy and obvious answer (the one I would have given, I suspect), is something along the lines of “all of these people know you well and they’re supporting me”). The answer Obama gave was far better—generous and inoffensive, yet establishing himself as the dominant voice.
The ability to change the question is probably one of the most important skills a politician can have. I really fear that this election could lead to another round of the feud between the Hatfields and the McCoys. I don’t think the country can afford that.
One of the best books related to politics I’ve ever read is Doris Kearns Goodwin’s discussion of Lincoln’s cabinet, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FTeam-Rivals-Political-Abraham-Lincoln%2Fdp%2Fproduct-description%2F0743270754&tag=timelysnow02-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325">Team of Rivals</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=timelysnow02-20&l=ur2&o=1" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" />. These words may come back to haunt me, but I see in Obama the potential to be the kind of politician who can change the nature and topic of discourse. I don’t see any of the others as even coming close.