LEADERSHIP CULTIVATION

Win One For Teddy, Pass Health Care Reform

America lost a genuine hero and champion of everyday people with the passing of Senator Ted Kennedy.  Teddy showed us how much we can achieve when we refuse to succumb to personal failings.  It's a known fact we can be our worst enemy and the biggest hindrance to personal success. But Teddy after experiencing so many bumps in the road, recovered to become maybe the greatest Senator in the history of the United States. His many detractors unwittingly may have been his biggest motivators.

Teddy had a problem with alcohol abuse and who can blame him after having to deal with the loss of all his brothers and a sister early in his life.  What an awesome burden?  I think I can cut him some slack.  Yet I am amazed that so many people with weaknesses (that would be everybody) hold Kennedy and others like Michael Vick to hypocritical standards that lack empathy or compassion.

A major lesson we can learn from Teddy's life is never delegate responsibility for personal success or failure to others. This week as television fed us a steady diet of Teddy's successes and failures, I couldn't help but think about Senator Jim DeMint's proclamation that "passage (or the lack thereof) of health care reform would be President Obama's watershed moment." If DeMint was paying attention, surely he came to the realization that life and political careers are full of watershed moments. Using DeMint's rationale, it could be said that health care reform is a Teddy Kennedy watershed moment as well. But given the obvious respect and affection that Democrat and Republican lawmakers had for Teddy, I hope they will put partisan politics on hold and pass a comprehensive health care reform bill.  What better opportunity exists to solidify the legacy of a friend. The "Gipper" aside, I hope they do it for Teddy.  May he find rest from his labor.

Republicans Reject Change as They Begin 2012 Campaign

Barack Obama won the U.S. Presidency in 2008 because he was a cheerleader for what Americans have wanted for a very long time, an end to political gridlock.  We embraced this young visionary leader who wanted to put an end to governance according to the counter-productive strategy of red and blue states competition. With this lame philosophy of red and blue states, absolutely nothing ever gets accomplished.  Well, nothing positive gets accomplished, but the divisiveness of red and blue states competition has become a profitable product line.

For some, an end to 51 to 49 percent politics just might not be good for business.  People like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity will find it more difficult to meet their projected profit margins since more people will choose to turn them off. Why do you think Rush is so upset these days?  People working together upsets the apple cart. But worrying about Limbaugh and Hannity pales in comparison to the havoc that will be perpetrated by the party out of power, the GOP.  They will use whatever gimmickry they deem necessary in their effort to return to power.

Almost to the point of arrogance, Republicans have not been shy about their desire for President Obama to fail.  Even though the country is burned out on long campaigns, and even though President Obama has been in office less than a month, the GOP 2012 quest for the presidency is in full gear.  Their desire to win in 2012, trumps the economy being in the tank, high unemployment, the War in Iraq, a chicken in every pot, it trumps everything. Is it for the good of the country, as in country first? What do you think? 

So President Obama shouldn't be terribly surprised when he cannot muster significant Republican support for legislation that might reverse the downward spiral the country is experiencing right now.  Nevertheless, it still boggles my mind to think that we have politicians like Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky fighting to keep the status quo and the misery manufactured by the party in power the prior eight years.  Well, Mr. McConnell, the majority of the United States including your neighboring state of North Carolina, voted for change even if most in your home state did not.  We also voted for President Obama to spearhead that change.  We did not vote for more of the same. 

President Obama deserves credit for trying to build bipartisan support.  It's a great commonsense approach and it would yield widespread benefits. However, often when major change occurs, dinosaurs tend to insist that it is just a fad and stubbornly try to stand in the way of progress.  They simply cannot or refuse to adjust to reality and a sizable percent of them, simply get left behind. I imagine that is what will happen to a lot of Republicans when they run for re-election in the mid-term.  They will simply get left behind, because the rest of us are moving on.