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A lesson in leadership…

By: onemovoter (Diary)  |  November 1st, 2011 at 04:37 PM  | 

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I have been studying many of the Republican candidates that have been running for the nomination. I would consider myself just like many others out there looking for a leader type in the mold of Reagan who can lead us back out of the Obama morass of our economy, and the scary world war of radical Islamic fundamentals against the rest of the world. This time I believe that the 2012 election will be a turning point for the rest of the century for the USA.

When Herman Cain first jumped into the GOP race, I really liked what I saw when researching his background. It read like someone who excelled at everything he did. I have personally known several people who are like this. They are very self confident and quite intelligent. I thought to myself this guy would be great as President. I even sent him some money early on.

Now I’m not one to blindly stick to a candidate and excuse everything they do. I can understand within reason, why someone will do what they do. The key I’m looking for in a candidate, when it comes to them being President, is how they react to unexpected events. This shows their style of leadership. I learned while in the military that there are several styles of leadership and it depends on matching the leadership style to the position in order to be successful.

Mr. Cain’s style of leadership is to rely heavily on others to do the heavy work. This works well in the business world because as top dog you give the orders and everyone follows, or they are gone. That is the reason why Cain has been so successful in business. He never had to know all the minute details, just the overall direction. You can see this as he pushes his 999 tax plan.

The Cain tax reform proposal is very bold, comparatively as bold as Obamacare is for the Democrats. In today’s Coffee and Markets edition, they compare not only the Cain and Perry tax proposals, but the likelihood of the plans passing congress. Noting that our founding fathers made our government to be slow in change, the likelihood of Cain’s bold tax plan passing, as is, is near zero. It doesn’t mean it couldn’t pass. It just means I agree with Ben on his opinion. A poll was taken of the Cain plan and the Perry flat tax plan, which showed a majority like the flat tax idea, while only a minority backed the Cain tax plan. The Fair Tax, which I would love to have, has been submitted to congress as a bill for quite some time, but has never gone anywhere. This is Cain’s ultimate goal, which I applaud and support. As a realist though, I know it would take moving mountains in order to ever pass such a tax system.

Ben noted that Perry’s tax plan is more likely to pass as it takes the current system, simplifies it and then makes it optional. The key point with Perry’s plan, is how realistic are your chances, that if you are elected to the office of the Presidency, to pass your proposed changes. The details put out by the Perry campaign are complete. It gives me confidence that Perry and his team know what they are doing and would hit the ground running if elected. I’ve read Cain’s plan at his website, which has details but still leaves me with questions like where does 9-0-9 come in? What other carve outs are coming?

It takes the right leadership and temperament to deal with so many others who you can’t order around or fire. In government, saying you have the people behind you means you have a majority of politicians elected by the people who agree with you. Even then, we know there is a plethora of opinions within a party, with ego’s to back them up. What would you do to corral a majority to your vision? What is your leadership style in this kind of situation?

Obama was able to excite people and have them follow him to the ballot box. His leadership style and solutions, on the other hand, have been a near complete failure to what America has needed these last 3 years. Looking to this next election, we should not only look for someone who can excite people, but also has the right leadership style to be a successful President of the USA.

So while you might be getting a tingle down your leg, make sure to sit back and ask yourself… What kind of leader do we need as President?

COMMENTS

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  • retire05

    based on the fact that neither one ever held elected office prior to running for president. But that is where the similarity ends. Cain has never had to deal with anything remotely political, except for his job as head of a large lobbying firm, the NRA, whereas Eisenhower dealth with not just the political arena in World War II, but foreign leaders, coordinating troops from many nations, working with personalities that were less than desirable and an over meddling and micromanaging FDR.

    Eisenhower’s road was not an easy one. Memories fresh of WWII and Korea, and an ever increasing threat in Southeast Asia as Communism was making it clear it intended to take over the whole of Souteast Asia. And a Russia that was really flexing its muscles letting the world know that it intended to dethrone the U.S. from its place as the super power.

    Eisenhower understood the importance of national defense. How many people now realize the reason for our interstate highway system and why there are regulations as to how high an overpass must be to allow for road clearence? Eisenhower also understood that national defense, not anything else, would continue to be the one most important factor to the safety of our nation and its citizens.

    All the talk now is about jobs, the economy, national debt, and yes, those things are of great importance. But we need to remember that the Arab Spring is about to turn into the Arab Nightmare, radical Islam is on the march, with the Muslim Brotherhood about to take over Egypt, and other ME nations going toward Islamic law which is an antithesis to western culture. And when those Middle Easterns quit fighting each other, there is no doubt in my mind they will band together to take on the Great and Little Satans, the U.S. and Israel. Just as Carter’s policy toward Iran gave us the current Iranian headache, Obama’s entire ME policy will come back to bite us, probably sooner than we realize.

    For that reason, we have to have someone who is already versed in the issues in Israel, who understands the problems that we are facing in the Middle East, and who understand that sending our young adults into a war zone is not just moving pieces on a chess board.

    We also need someone who understands that certain things are job killers, not job creators. Someone who understands that things like tort reform free up company capitol to grow a business and create jobs. Who will encourage states to pass tort reform, and loser pays laws for the betterment of the economy. And that the government only has a few things it is required to do, although it is not doing those things very well now and for the most part, should just remain out of our lives.

    I made up my mind that I will never vote for someone who has not worn the uniform of our nation again. Never. I will never put someone in the position of being CIC who doesn’t understand the total committment to those who serve us well, asking little in return.

    That leaves me with two choices, and since I have personally watched the evolution of Ron Paul from sane to needing to be treated with Aracept, Paul is off my list.

  • kestrel

    and his clarity on Israel, make me willing to hear him out, and probably give him more leeway from criticism on how to control our borders. He might do it differently than I would, but he understands the national security risk posed by uncontrolled borders.