Stumble It!Jan 17 2009
On Successful Leadership
“What enables the wise sovereign and the good general to strike and conquer and achieve things beyond the reach of ordinary men is foreknowledge.“
- Sun Tzu, Art of War
“There will be no end to the troubles of states, or of humanity itself, until philosophers become kings in this world, or until those we now call kings and rulers really and truly become philosophers, and political power and philosophy thus come into the same hands.“
-Plato, The Republic
The president-elect, Barack Obama, has been engaged in a brilliant pre-inauguration campaign designed to rally the will of the people. Obama, having already exhibited hi foresight and political acumen in the appointment of his cabinet, is now moving on to the really important task of rallying the people. During his campaign which, arguably, was well run and resonated well with the majority of Americans, the excitement his speeches and presence generated - that Republican critics referred to as his “rock star” fame - swept his supporters up in an atmosphere of possibility and hope. But most Americans have a short attention span, particularly given the looming misery foisted upon the people by a small percentage of speculators who gambled away America’s future with glee. And so Obama, after being somewhat out of the spotlight for a few weeks, has elected to engage in a campaign that is an amalgam of tradition, psychology, historical thinking, and politically-savvy attention to detail.
Americans are short on tradition. It is not America’s fault, really, being one of the youngest nations in existence. Tradition is a nebulous thing that starts out as an innovation, becomes fashionable, becomes pass’e , is revived, dies again, and is transformed by re-adoption into tradition. America has had only a few short centuries that yield usable tradition, but some sticks more easily than others. But for the few that are, Obama is using them for all their worth. For instance, he is traveling by train; Lincoln’s address to his “people” in Illinois from the back of a train, Truman’s famous whistlestop campaign are aimed at recapturing the essence of the Presidency from years gone by. Travelling by train makes the candidate accessible, personable, and yet special; trains represented the pinnacle of American ingenuity or economic might (and may yet again). By traveling by train, Obama is placing himself squarely into the tradition of late 19th and early 20th century Presidents.
Psychologically, Obama’s speech borrows phrases from significant Americans which have paved the way to his success; Lincoln and King, for example, are re-purposed in his speeches, but not in the cynnical way that some previous Presidents have. These words are intended to re-ignite the American imagination of possibility and progressiveness; the era of the immediate post-Civil War/Reconstruction, the Marshall Plan, or the Civil Rights era. His speeches remind Americans of the greatness of their past, of their forebearers, andof the accomplishments of those past generations. But it also serves to remind the Americans of today who are used to, or at least expect, easy silver-bullet answers (Torture will yield answers, instant credit approval, and the thrill of day trading, etc.) that success - real success - comes only with struggle and sacrifice.
Obama has to be, in my mind at least, the most historically-minded President-elect since Woodrow Wilson (who, himself, was a PhD in Political Science) . This is because of his attempts to reach out across the aisle, which indicated that he is aware that Bush-era, Nixon-era, and Clinton-era partisan animosity will not work. This is the recognition that Lincoln surrounded himself with his former adversaries (Lincoln appointed his Republican nemesis to his cabinet in much the same way that Obama appointed his Democratic one) as well as tapping well-respected, well-educated academics to attack the problems of the country (in the same manner that FDR did). In addition, he recognizes the fact that while black Americans have always felt exploited, so have rural poor whites. He realizes, perhaps, that while the Black Power movement of the 1970’s may have empowered many African Americans, it angered and isolated poor whites and so overly liberal expressions of “white guilt” or heavy-handed racial equality politics would only serve to divide the country further.
While many American may be outraged at Obama’s choices, particularly of Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, but it demonstrates why his “inexperience” should not be seen as equivalent to naivete. Just as it is possible for a person to exhibit a certain aptitude toward music, literature, sports, or science, so can a person have an intuitive grasp of politics and social situations. By appointing Hillary (and going above and beyond in a long, drawn out courtship), Obama has removed a potential obstacle in the Senate who would - perhaps out of spite more than out of real objection - to his plans for the country. This is a fact recognized by Clinton, no doubt, which would explain her coyness during the process. Additionally, given how he landed his Illinois Sentate seat, he shows the ability - and willingness - to undercut his opponents, which is important in dealing with intracable foreign and domestic adversaries.
Will Obama become the “wise sovereign” or “philosopher” that Sun Tzu or Plato spoke of thousands of years ago? The future is unknown, of course, but his current traits seem to indicate that there is a solid possibility of it. For all of us, I certainly hopeso.
