George Barna » Personality http://www.georgebarna.com Facilitating A Spiritual And Moral Revolution Wed, 11 Jan 2012 00:36:39 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Disqualified Because of Personality? http://www.georgebarna.com/2010/01/disqualified-because-of-personality/ http://www.georgebarna.com/2010/01/disqualified-because-of-personality/#comments Wed, 20 Jan 2010 15:35:23 +0000 George Barna http://www.georgebarna.com/?p=166 While catching up on some back reading recently I was intrigued by an editorial in the NY Times by Ross Douthat, whose columns are often interesting. In his November 22, 2009 column, Douthat wrote that Mike Huckabee and Sarah Palin, in particular, seem unsuited for the presidency because they do not have the gravitas required for the office. In Huckabee’s case, Douthat was concerned that the former governor owes his popularity “more to personality than to substance” and that his primary interest is to “cash in on (his) celebrity.” He wrote that “Huckabee spent the last year hamming it up on a weekly talk show, and the last month hawking a book of inspirational Christmas stories” and that “Huckabee’s gabfest is a weekly reaffirmation of the rap that he’s too lightweight for the Oval Office.” Douthat then posits the need for a Republican leader who is “serious” about the economy, trade, and health care, and one who will “become the voice of an intellectually vigorous conservatism.” He closed with his knockout punch: “If Republicans are lucky, though, it will be somebody who shares their (Huckabee and Palin) charisma — but who prefers the responsibilities of leadership to the pleasures of celebrity.”

How is it that so many intelligent and articulate members of the media consistently misunderstand leadership as well as the political process? A non-negotiable truth of leadership is that people must trust the individual before empowering them to lead. Should Huckabee be disqualified as a “serious candidate” because he has an accessible weekly talk show? Is it inappropriate for him to dispense political perspective in ways that the average voter finds more appealing than the mind-numbing and audience-repelling exercises that typify the content on Meet the Press and This Week in Washington? Should he be spanked because he does things in an unconventional way? Is he wrong to believe that Americans do not want a four-year presidential campaign? Was Ronald Reagan a lightweight because he had personality? Can we name a president in the last 40 years who has not had a book that he was “hawking” while he was not in office? Is it accurate to argue that to be a serious Republican contender one must be “the voice of an intellectually vigorous conservatism”? If a viable candidate must discuss serious proposal regarding the economy, why doesn’t Huckabee’s oft-mentioned support for the “fair tax” qualify, along with his weekly statements on his talk show and his daily radio program regarding unemployment, taxation, trade policies and federal bailouts? He has written extensively about his views on such matters as well.

Mr. Douthat describes President Obama as an example of a leader who “prefers the responsibilities of leadership to the pleasures of celebrity.” Really? It strains credulity to label Mr. Obama an effective leader at this stage of his presidency. Roughly one year into his reign millions of Americans have already lost their trust in Mr. Obama because of a string of broken promises. Among other campaign promises, the President told voters that he would allow five days for public comment before signing bills, eliminate capital gains taxes for small businesses, allow Americans to withdraw funds from 401(k) and retirement accounts without penalties, ban lobbyists from serving in his administration, reform earmarks, bring all combat troops home from Iraq in 16 months, sign the “Freedom of Choice Act,” give Americans $4,000 in credits for college, and run a “transparent” administration. (Of course, there were over 400 other campaign promises made, but fairness requires us to give him time to implement all those promises. It shouldn’t require more than two decades…) Great leaders are honest and transparent, qualities which millions of Americans hoped were part of the man they voted for. Sadly, the President has turned out to lack the strength of character to make good on his promises and to transform the political process.

So, what do you make of Mr. Douthat’s allegation that candidates like Ms. Palin and Mr. Huckabee are lightweights and are unqualified for the presidency because they are operate effectively within the mainstream of pop culture?

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