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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Scumbria who wrote (135709)	4/5/2001 10:16:00 AM
From: Neocon	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769667

I think he retained credibility by acknowledging the slow down and proposing a remedy, you think he talked the markets down. I understand the idea behind your thesis, but I do not think that the markets are so impervious to information and susceptible to suggestion. We shall see,in the longer run........

To: Scumbria who wrote (135709)	4/5/2001 10:17:52 AM
From: Zoltan!	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769667

>>Reagan and Clinton were optimistic Clinton was not. He lied his way into office. The economy was growing at over 4% when he first disgraced office, yet Clinton was claiming that it was "the worst economy in 50 years". Where were you? Clinton was lying and Bush was telling the truth.

To: Scumbria who wrote (135709)	4/5/2001 2:47:25 PM
From: Kevin Rose	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769667

Some would say that Reagan and Clinton also shared an alternate universe. Their view of reality was both a little twisted; Clinton's ethically, Reagan's was probably medical. Carter, on the other hand, lacked what every leader needed; the ability to lie about how bad things were. He was overly honest, and unable to get 'up' when things were bad. Leaders need a certain amount of, well, dishonesty in appearance. When things are bad, they can say that, but their body language can't. Their mouth can say "we are in danger" but they better have their backs straight, head high, and look you right in the eye. My 'no fear in leadership' story comes from watching the movie 'A Bridge Too Far' (also a great book by Cornelius Ryan). If you've seen the movie, the premise was to force a bridge through the Netherlands and secure a bridgehead over the Rhine. Someone got the brilliant (not, as it turns out) idea to use our idle paratroopers to secure the necessary bridges over the many waterways that crisscross Holland. The American troops were to secure the lower 2/3s of the route, and the British division the upper 1/3, including the bridge over the Rhine at Arnhem. Well, I won't regurgitate the whole thing here, but things went wrong. Took longer for the bridges to be secured, and the ground forces to drive north. Meanwhile, the British ran into a 'bit of bad luck'. Two Nazi SS Panzer divisions were refitting and resting right outside Arnhem. Only a portion of the British paratroops even got into Arnhem; the rest were trapped outside, with their backs to the Rhine (on the North side, away from help). Sorry for the long setup. The film showed how the few British paratroops held out on the Arnhem bridge for a long time (something like 8 days?); much longer than they were supposed to hold (around 3 days). They were surrounded by tanks, and under constant artillery and tank fire. In the post-film 'how the film was made', they interviewed the actor who played the ranking British officer in Arnhem. By luck, the real commander survived the battle and war, and was technical advisor to the film. There was a scene where the commander was supposed to run from one set of buildings to another, while explosions reigned around him. While filming, he did what you and I would probably do; ran as fast as he could; who wants to stay under fire any more than they had to? Well, the technical advisor, in typical British fashion, tut-tutted and tisked, and said that would not do. Why not?, said the actor, that's how I would run if someone were trying to blow me up. Well, replied the advisor, you can't let on to the lads that you're scared, or that you think you even need to run like that. Otherwise, they may think we're in REAL trouble... Wow, that took a long time to tell; sorry, probably wasn't worth the climax. Oh well, the point is that sometimes leaders have to look and talk the part, even if they don't feel the part. Dishonesty? Call it being strong for the people.