Competence

[kmusser]

madamruppy made a comment about wanting competence from my politicians. Now I won't go that far, if they were at all competent they'd know better than to become politicians in the first place, but I do hope that they will surround themselves with competent people.

I think Obama does that. Sure I'd like someone with more experience, but he at least strikes me as the kind of guy that when he encounters something he doesn't know he'll find someone that does and listen to them. He likes being informed. He'll accept advice. If he makes a mistake he'll admit it and apologize. I see that as a good thing.

Bush is notorious for prizing loyalty over any semblance of competence, and as in many things McCain appears to be following in his footsteps. His staff seems to be made up of complete idiots that regularly make blunders on his behalf. McCain seems to take a certain pride in being ill-informed and his staff will defend anything he says even when he contradicts himself or makes obvious mistakes. I don’t know why people think he’ll be an effective president when he can’t effectively run a political campaign.

I’ll add that part of my faith in Obama is his association with David Axelrod. I got to meet Axelrod while I was in high school and he came to lecture for our political science class, he struck then as a remarkably intelligent, competent, and trustworthy person. That he thinks Obama is the real deal was a big part of what convinced me.

Comments

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

when he can’t effectively run a political campaign

Depends on what you define as "effective". He's still been winning in the polls recently...

[deboranter.livejournal.com]

i bet obama and his staff know where spain is.


ooooo rimshot!

[thatliardiego.livejournal.com]

Obama Expanding His Lead In The Tracking Polls

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

yeah, i just saw (in a different blog) that the RNC "bounce" (really the Palin bounce) is finally over and we're back to the traditional horse race portion of our evening's entertainment.

[kmusser]

I'm talking about McCain's personal campaign staff. I think that the propaganda machine that Bush and Cheney built up is remarkably effective and is working on his behalf, and the RNC does ok, and the fundamentalist political machine is certainly effective - I think McCain is doing so well because of the work of these surrogate groups that would be working to support whoever the Republican candidate was - his own campaign staff is more of an impediment to their efforts than an asset.

[rigelkitty.livejournal.com]

Palin's governatorial staff is even cronier. And pathetically so.

Gov. Sarah Palin lives by the maxim that all politics is local, not to mention personal.

So when there was a vacancy at the top of the State Division of Agriculture, she appointed a high school classmate, Franci Havemeister, to the $95,000-a-year directorship. A former real estate agent, Ms. Havemeister cited her childhood love of cows as a qualification for running the roughly $2 million agency.

Ms. Havemeister was one of at least five schoolmates Ms. Palin hired, often at salaries far exceeding their private sector wages...

The Wasilla High School yearbook archive now doubles as a veritable directory of state government. Ms. Palin appointed Mr. Bitney, her former junior high school band-mate, as her legislative director and chose another classmate, Joe Austerman, to manage the economic development office for $82,908 a year. Mr. Austerman had established an Alaska franchise for Mailboxes Etc.