2008 Woodie Awards
Future president must measure up to higher standard
Kevin Harrison
Issue date: 8/31/07 Section: OpEd Page
As the 2008 presidential race lumbers along its path to the White House, some reflection is necessary to interpret the clichés thrust upon us with each new presidential debate and to rehabilitate ourselves from the injuries sustained by the constant hail of snipes that flies from candidate to candidate. Instead of seeking a specific candidate however, it is far better that we should use that reflection to discover a mold of the quintessential leader.
Indeed, since the Reagan era, no president has uniquely galvanized us as a nation in the way that only a president can. No single man who has even run for office in the time since then has provided America with the intelligence, integrity, out-spokenness, and moral leadership that our nation needs so desperately to reclaim the luster our once golden and untarnished throne held back then. It is for this purpose that I write. To offer you a simple template of the quintessential leader who can re-invent American greatness in the 21st first century, the ideal traits of the individual who will single-handedly resurrect the presidency.
The first of these traits is excellence in management. There is no doubt that in the vast bureaucracy that exists in today's government, the individual in charge must know how to not only select the proper people for each position, but also how to supervise and focus his/her talents into a performance that keeps his/her agency out of the headlines.
If there is anything I have learned in only my two years as a member of management at the company I work for, a smoothly running ship makes no waves. I imagine a smoothly running nation should operate the same way-unless of course its leader is the person making positive ones.
This leads me to the second quintessential trait-outspokenness. Admittedly, the mere willingness to speak regarding the actions you take and the information that motivates those actions is not enough. The outspokenness that we as Americans must seek in our ideal leader is the kind that is not only tempered with intelligence, but also honesty and frankness. At the same time, that outspokenness must be strong, not just to galvanize public support at home, but also to make it clear to the rest of the world that the words coming for our leader's mouth have a strong majority of Americans standing behind them.
Finally, what America desperately needs is to find a leader that leads not only in the functional sense, but also in the moral sense. We need a leader to invigorate the classic ideas upon which our nation was founded, and to re-invoke the policies that made us the power we are today.
We need a leader who can inspire true patriotic sentiment, and convince people of all ages, races, and backgrounds that America is the standard that the rest of the world will be held to, that no sacrifice, no matter how small on behalf of our country goes unnoticed, and, most importantly, that no matter what crises afflict us, he or she, and we along with them, will stand unbowed, always ready, to safeguard the peoples of the world, and of our own nation from the dreadful offenses that those who seek to defeat us are all too willing to perpetrate.
Indeed, since the Reagan era, no president has uniquely galvanized us as a nation in the way that only a president can. No single man who has even run for office in the time since then has provided America with the intelligence, integrity, out-spokenness, and moral leadership that our nation needs so desperately to reclaim the luster our once golden and untarnished throne held back then. It is for this purpose that I write. To offer you a simple template of the quintessential leader who can re-invent American greatness in the 21st first century, the ideal traits of the individual who will single-handedly resurrect the presidency.
The first of these traits is excellence in management. There is no doubt that in the vast bureaucracy that exists in today's government, the individual in charge must know how to not only select the proper people for each position, but also how to supervise and focus his/her talents into a performance that keeps his/her agency out of the headlines.
If there is anything I have learned in only my two years as a member of management at the company I work for, a smoothly running ship makes no waves. I imagine a smoothly running nation should operate the same way-unless of course its leader is the person making positive ones.
This leads me to the second quintessential trait-outspokenness. Admittedly, the mere willingness to speak regarding the actions you take and the information that motivates those actions is not enough. The outspokenness that we as Americans must seek in our ideal leader is the kind that is not only tempered with intelligence, but also honesty and frankness. At the same time, that outspokenness must be strong, not just to galvanize public support at home, but also to make it clear to the rest of the world that the words coming for our leader's mouth have a strong majority of Americans standing behind them.
Finally, what America desperately needs is to find a leader that leads not only in the functional sense, but also in the moral sense. We need a leader to invigorate the classic ideas upon which our nation was founded, and to re-invoke the policies that made us the power we are today.
We need a leader who can inspire true patriotic sentiment, and convince people of all ages, races, and backgrounds that America is the standard that the rest of the world will be held to, that no sacrifice, no matter how small on behalf of our country goes unnoticed, and, most importantly, that no matter what crises afflict us, he or she, and we along with them, will stand unbowed, always ready, to safeguard the peoples of the world, and of our own nation from the dreadful offenses that those who seek to defeat us are all too willing to perpetrate.
Be the first to comment on this story