Winners and Losers
Time for voters to have their say. It’s a great privilege to live in a country where we choose our leaders and decide selected crucial issues by the voice of the people. History affirms that the majority usually chooses the right leaders, and makes the right decisions -- but not always.
However, our system is forgiving. We have elections and legislative sessions every year and the chance comes soon enough to choose new leaders, right wrong decisions, and start anew. Every election has winners and losers. I’ve never met anyone in politics who won every debate, every issue and every election.
George F. Will, the columnist, once noted that politics is a lot more like baseball than football. In baseball, even the very best teams lose dozens of games. In football, you lose a handful and the season is lost. So, while one election can sometimes have momentous impact, in most cases it doesn’t. Losing candidates and losing causes often live to fight another day. Tomorrow we’ll already be focused on the 2008 legislative session and election.
Many races this year have been hard-fought and emotional. Now it’s time for winners to be magnanimous in victory, and for losers to be gracious in defeat.
KCPW Election Night Special
Tonight at 7 p.m. KCPW is airing a program called "Your Billion Dollar President," which "looks at what it takes to get elected and what the candidates' spending, marketing and campaigning say about the quality of our democracy."
Washington Watch
Cannon: Replace State Dept. Refuseniks
In op-ed, Rep. Chris Cannon says career diplomats who refuse to fulfill their duty to work in places like Iraq should be replaced by patriots who've already demonstrated a willingness to serve, like military veterans (Human Events).
Theodore Roosevelt and the Mormons
Roosevelt helped Apostle-Senator Reed Smoot keep his seat in the Senate, became the first President to speak in the Tabernacle on Temple Square, and as a former President wrote an open letter to Collier’s –a national magazine—defending the Church. He loved the West, and praised Utahns for helping the desert literally blossom as the rose. (From Mike Winder’s Presidents and Prophets: The Story of America’s Presidents and the LDS Church)
Today in Political History
Nov. 6, 1860: Former Illinois congressman Abraham Lincoln defeats three other candidates for the U.S. presidency. (New York Times www.nytimes.com)
Nov. 6, 1861: Jefferson Davis is elected to a six-year term as president of the Confederacy. He remains in office throughout the period of the Civil War.
Nov. 6, 1951: US Navy spy plane P2V Neptune, with crew of 10, is shot down by USSR. (No survivors or remains recovered.)
Nov. 6, 1991: President Boris Yeltsin disbands the Communist Party in the former USSR.
Nov. 6, 1992: William Jefferson Blythe Clinton is elected president of the United States.
(Source: Perspicuity)
Wise Words
“Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis; a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God?"
-- Thomas Jefferson, excerpt from notes on State of Virginia (Source: Patriot Post)
Management Tip
Recommend Rather Than Report
Managers sometimes argue, "But nobody asked me to make a recommendation; they just asked me to answer a question."
Think again. In most such cases, the reason someone has asked the question is that you’re the expert—the go-to person with the appropriate expertise. They don’t want just the facts. They want your expert opinion. In light of the context, their goal, the question they’ve asked, and the question they should have asked, what’s your recommendation to accomplish the goal?
When you see a medical doctor, do you expect an opinion along with your lab reports and X-rays? When you go to your CPA, do you expect only the numbers or an opinion about what’s deductible and what’s not? When you talk to your financial advisor, do you want only the data on the effective yields of your portfolio or would you like the firm’s opinions about various investments options?
Don’t bring a problem and dump it at another’s door as if to say, "There! I’ve done my part!" If you’re the person most familiar with a problem and have the most information available, offer something actionable to move others closer to a solution. If you’re the one battling in the trenches, what’s your suggestion to others who can help? Communicate the next action as clearly as the problem and you’ll clearly be labeled a leader. (Source: CommoTip)
National Politics
-- Wall Street Journal: "The way in which Senate Democrats wavered and then consented to the confirmation of Michael B. Mukasey as attorney general reflects the party's broader struggle to make headway on its national-security agenda, despite President Bush's unpopularity."
-- Washington Post: "For the first time in nearly 30 years, there is no breakaway front-runner for the Republican nomination as the first votes of Campaign 2008 loom, and a new Washington Post-ABC News poll underscores how open the GOP race remains."
-- RealClearPolitics: Columnist Michael Barone explains why "October 2007 may turn out to be the month that immigration became a key issue in presidential politics."
-- Financial Times: The Senate majority's decision to drop a plan to extract billions in extra taxes from megamillionaire hedge fund managers "surprised many Washington insiders, who saw the plan as appealing to the spirit of class warfare that infuses the Democratic party. ... [T]his episode may reflect a dawning Democratic awareness of whom they really represent. For the demographic reality is that, in America, the Democratic party is the new 'party of the rich.'"
Blog Watch
-- For multiple perspectives on today's voucher referendum, see Captain's Quarters, Steve Urquhart, The Senate Site, UtahSenateDemocrats, Dynamic Range, The Utah Amicus, Reach Upward, COL Takashi, Simple Utah Mormon Politics, By Common Consent, KVNU's For The People, On Life and Lybberty, Utah State Democratic Party, Pursuit of Liberty, and JM Bell And Friends.
-- Ten Big Questions For... spotlights West Valley City Councilman Mike Winder.
Lighter Side
Thoughts from Tea Leaf, compiled by Jeff Thredgold
-- Shotgun wedding: A case of wife or death
-- If you don’t pay your exorcist, you get repossessed |
