The NY Times reminds us of basic math, unimaginable sums and mistaken priorities, as it remarks on the cost of the Iraqi Quagmire. Read: What $1.2 Trillion Buy? I’m reminded how America is borrowing money from the rest of the world, how impossible it will be to pay back, how long that is likely to take, and what a good idea it might be to teach our children Cantonese or Mandarin.
Leadership on any level is a function of a person’s charisma. Charisma determines levels of trust and respect in relationships. Because we develop lasting impressions within the first few seconds of meeting someone, on a subconscious level, charisma plays a vital role in human discourse.
Since politics is, in essence, a manifestation of human psychology, charisma also plays a large, understated role. Perhaps in this arena more than others, a person’s impressions upon others is paramount to the functions of politics. As such, it is more important how you make others feel than how you think, believe or act - to the degree that actions do not break the emotional illusion invoke through a combination of charisma and careful manipulations.
What invokes such thoughts is the announcement by Barack Obama of his Presidential Exploratory Committee. View the video here. No one in recent years has caught the interest of Americans as he has done. Few since John and Robert Kennedy have had the charisma to reach the hearts of jaded, disenfranchised voters as had this young Senator. Notwithstanding the sporadic media attention, Barack’s message resonates. In his carefree delivery, his innate attraction shines.
Somehow, I get premonitions of doom as I watch him. Both men whom I and others associate with Barack met untimely ends. As I watch the unnerving political machinations of late, I cannot suspend disbelief enough to think we’ve learned any great lessons from the near-martyrization of John F. and Robert Kennedy. To think a man who might make a run at being the first black president, as a Democrat in such hostile times, might sail through unscathed is to ignore the lessons of history.
But, as the man said, there’s always room for the Audacity of Hope. Maybe that could be his campaign slogan…