Polls shows McCain having erased Obama’s lead now that the Democrat has chosen Senator Biden as his running mate… to me, it seems that people are sensing something. From the perspective of someone who reads people during behavioral interviews, here’s what I’m seeing when I look at Obama:

Issue: Economy
Says: Break from the Reps; fix the issues
Does: Avoids the tough messages on the tough issues (taxes vs. Soc Sec!); in short, panders to a known audience by towing a party line.

Issue: Politics
Says: Change!
Does: Picks a long term, part-of-the-machine Dem as his running mate.

Issue: Social issues
Says: Focus on them and fix them!
Does: Makes teachers’ jobs even more difficult by picking a running mate with a proven charge of plagiarism against him. (Good luck telling students that plagiarism is a capital offense now, Professor!)

Issue: Character
Says: Change—vote for someone who has some!
Does: Obama is a first term Senator running for President. Whatever else he’s got going for him, one thing he is not short of is ambition!

Issue: Energy
Says: Break from the Reps; fix the issues
Does: Avoids the tough message on the tough issues; in short, panders to a known audience by towing a party line. (Wait… I’m having deja vu…)

Issue: Foreign relations
Says: Get tough—invade Pakistan if need be! (BTW, don’t worry… Bush has now already done that)
Does: Increasingly softens stance over time

Look, I’m a leadership guy… is it too much to ask the LEADER OF THE FREE WORLD be someone I can hold out as an example of what to do, rather than someone I use an example from my other list?

Is it too much to ask that my President be “more perfect”, that he (or she!) take the job’s responsibilities seriously, and that he (or she!) not require an entrenched political spin machine for support?

You know who I think would make a good President of the United States? I have a client—I’ll call him Isaac—who would be fantastic. He’s about as sharp as anyone you’d want to meet, he has an incredible aptitude for both strategy and detail, he works like a dog, is dedicated to the success of the organization he represents, believes in his people, giving the good ones opportunity and getting the bad ones into places they can be successful—inside the company or otherwise, he demonstrates an incredible learning orientation, complete with the ability to set his ego aside to take criticism, and he goes and gets outside, expert counsel in areas where he himself is not as strong. He’s a little rough at the edges, but he has learned to gauge when he’s in a funk and works through a few, trusted others when that’s the case so as not to scare off his folks.

Why won’t he ever be president? Because his faults make him unelectable: he’s not telegenic (he’s more interested in doing the job than in getting it), he lacks the kind of charisma that the spotlight requires, and he hasn’t built the right network to get himself noticed by people in power.

Which is too bad, because I’m really struggling with the upcoming election. Sometimes, like today, I wish I weren’t in the leadership business… I wonder if this whole thing would be easier if I just had my pet issue, could love/hate the candidates based on their position relative to my one issue, and then go about my business as usual.

Posted under Leadership, Current Trends