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Sometimes I read too much print journalism, too many blogs, and I forget to watch TV. TV can bring out truth in people. I was glad just now to see Katie Couric ask candidates, “What was your biggest mistake?” in her series, “Character, leadership and the presidency.” I am not of the evening news demographic, but I like this topic. I wish we’d discuss it more. So my husband and I just watched ten candidates in a row answer: What was your biggest mistake? And it was telling. And I took some notes:
What’s Mitt Romney’s biggest mistake? Assuming that his personal belief that abortion is wrong while allowing others’ choice was an acceptable situation. He realized he had to get Government involved in “protecting the sanctity of human life.” I call it pandering on abortion to the values voters.
Fred Thompson gave what seemed a quite honest answer. He was a “single man” (hint hint) and didn’t live up to his “own standards” (hint hint). Oh Fred, you cad!
Hillary Clinton’s mistake was her poor handling of health care in 1993. Fair enough, as it’s on every voter’s mind. Hillary said her failure to reform health care was “So personally disappointing and such a tragic loss of time…because I was new to Washington I didn’t have the experience I have now (Ed-take that, Obama!) on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue.”
Good answer: true, and conveniently on message (Hillary is the experienced candidate, after all).
I really liked Rudy’s answer. He talked about failing to reform the child welfare agency, and a little girl died.
Obama did drugs and engaged in “a lot of destructive behavior” when he was a teenager. Yikes: Obama references high school and Hillary references her failure leading the country.
Huckabee got sued by a disgruntled employee: he learned how to deal with personnel issues. I bet he wished he reviewed parole recommendations more closely.
Edwards: voting for the war in Iraq. He learned a lesson from his bad vote, thousands died. What about a more personal experience, Katie asked. Edwards shook his shiny head: “I can’t really think of one.”
McCain was next: he volunteered for more service and ended up in prison camp. Also the Keating Five. Again: experience vs. seeming frivolity on certain Democrats’ behalf.
I must say, watching the candidates, one after another, was illuminating. Leadership emerges, and it’s based on one strong emotion: do I feel like this person is telling the truth? I rarely feel that way when I see candidates speak.
I don’t think it’s unconnected that America is in the middle of a long emotional malaise, one of the longest ever outside of the Great Depression, in which two-thirds of the country feels we’re on the wrong track. Chuck Todd, NBC News Political Director has written eloquently about our country’s search for leadership. Americans feel pessimistic, about everything from the economy, Iraq, our planet. We’re depressed about our star athletes doping themselves to win, and we’re sad about “a powerlessness many parents feel about the influences of the Internet and video games are having on how we raise our children.”
We want leaders to stand up and guide us. We want them to be human and to take a journey with us. Above all, in 2008, we want a candidate who resonates as a leader.
But how can we ask for leadership and yet go along with the media and establishment when they castigate the normal, human process of making mistakes? Sometimes, mind-changing is crass (Clinton’s change of mind on NAFTA comes to mind) but sometimes, I’m glad to see candidates grow. And sometimes, you want to laugh and cry. Michele at ReformedChicks brings up an incident that highlights, yet again, that we’ll probably get the leaders we deserve, because politics has gotten so ridiculous:
'On Sunday, Clinton's campaign issued a memo suggesting that Obama is lying when he told voters in Boston that he has has "not been planning to run for president for however number of years some of the other candidates have been planning for," a seeming reference to Clinton.
Clinton responded by having her campaign issue a press release in which news articles show that Obama wrote in both kindergarten and third grade essays that when he grows up he wants to be "a president."
"'I'm sure tomorrow they'll attack him for being a flip-flopper because he told his second grade teacher he wanted to be an astronaut," Burton said in response.'This is plain silly!
