Pennsylvania calls it for Clinton

Hillary beat out Obama by 10%, and the Democratic party lurches ever closer to a brokered-convention. My co-worker, a diehard conservative, is hoping for Hillary to run as an independent. I'm hoping we emerge with the best possible person in office. I don't know who that is out of the three candidates running. A complaint I've been hearing about Obama is that his not going on the attack enough is seen as a sign of weakness. I don't know how much of that is spin and how much is accurate. But it does make a certain amount of sense. People might not have a clear idea of what they would expect him to do, but they'll probably know it when they see it. I respect that Obama is trying to take the high road, and analysts have said that Clinton loses popularity more when she goes negative than Obama does as the result of her attacks, so I think her strategy still isn't working (and if that isn't reflected in certain races, it is reflected in the donation race).\

On to John McCain, who is in the enviable position of building his brand while his opponents spend all their time attacking each other. I really wish he wasn't trying to use technicalities regarding campaign finance. I'm not wild about the legislation in the first place, but his name's on it. If he's looking for loopholes, that's the sign of a bad bill. That said, I don't think that it's an easily enough to understand issue that people will be motivated. I'm unclear on the nitty-gritty specifics myself. It's certainly not the saddle that a possible anti-American pastor or lying about being under sniper attack is, and that gives him a good position in the fall. His number one drawback, I believe, is age. I don't think that people will hold it against him, I just think that when the campaigning is tough, he might have some fatigue issues.

We shall see, it'll be an exciting fall. And whoever ends up in office, they have a lot of work ahead of them. A falling dollar, falling housing market, sorting out immigration, and that's all inside in the house! Looking outside, we have a very chaotic and volatile world, that still has grand amounts of potential. One thing I don't want to see is the country thinking that the President is the person outside of ourselves who can "make it all better". We need to be the ones who make our lives better and our world better. The Presidency is a job interview. Policy decisions need to be made, but they need to be made with our input and with us holding the elected officials accountable.

Pundits call it for Clinton

The reviews of the debate I've read so far put Clinton ahead after last night's debate. Or, more accurately, John McCain. Certainly Barack was under more scrutiny than Hillary was. I still think he handled it well for the most part (unlike Hillary's "defense" of her Bosnia statements). The question is whether or not his affiliations are an accurate depiction of who he is. If they are, do we want a closet-radical as President? And if not, do we want a person who affiliates with anyone in order to get ahead?

I'm torn on the character issue. I think it's extremely important, but it seems to drown out any sort of policy debate. Democrats and Republicans represent two very different views of what the government should be doing. That issue should come first, and then character issues. We're a large country, we should be able to find someone who has good policy ideas who's a stand-up person as well.

What Obama does better than Clinton

It's funny, I think Barrack pays more attention to Bill Clinton's communication style than Hillary does. What Obama does very well is to reframe everything in a more positive light. I'm watching the debate right now, and someone just asked Hillary about her comment that she was shot at in Bosnia. They asked him if this was indicative about her honesty. He actually sidestepped it! He didn't want to go into the negative territory, because that would naturally put him in a negative light.

Hillary is now going on the Weatherman rant. This is my rookie prediction: Hillary won't win the primary. She'll never realize how important it was to have a positive image.

Aaron
www.aaronagostini.net

Broken Processes

We had a lunch and learn discussion today at work that was a bit depressing. Without going into specifics (which isn't allowed by our corporate policy), we have a process in place that can be very frustrating for our customers. Due to the many different players involved, such as us, our customers, indpendent vendors, government agencies, and our respective legal departments, there is no clear path to accoplishing the goal.

To me, this is a very tough problem that people can encounter in a variety of ways. Basically, no one wants to risk anything, so they put hurdles into place before they will agree to take action. This allows an idea to be shot down without anyone needing to accept full responsibility for saying "no". Each side can say that the other side wouldn't do x, or agree to y. This allows an equilibrium to develop where no one has to deal with the stress of making something work.

Thankfully, there are people out there who see their job as thinking outside the process. Sooner or later, through frustration, or just desire to do the best job possible, they push harder. They talk to each side, and try to find out what it is they really need.

A lot of times, communication is presented as a way to get over on people, to snow them with bs. I think that it's important to keep in mind the important value of being a brave communicator. Deadlocked situations are daunting, and bureaucracy can be draining. It's important to still be able to talk to all sides in these cases, because when we push through these hold-ups, we can achieve our biggest successes.

Go inject some sanity into the world.

Aaron
www.aaronagostini.net

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