Leadership at Home

Today, I watched the replay of the much-maligned former CEO of Hewlett-Packard Carly Fiorina telling the public that none of the candidates, presidential or vice, could run a large company. Her bigger-picture point was eclipsed by McCain's fury at her, and that was: leading a large corporation is not the same as leading the United States, contrary to popular Republican belief.

Of course there are similarities. As President or CEO, you have to be smart, you have to know how to negotiate, you must ingrain thrift at all levels, and you must inspire everyone that you are leading to do their best.

But a CEO's job, though tough, is actually quite simple: it is to maximize shareholder value ("eradicating greed" as John McCain says he'd do, is not an option as any adult member of the human race will tell you). A President, on the other hand, can't focus on a few financial metrics to gauge success. A President must be thoughtful, weigh options, and link policy to results (an area in which we can make great gains with ever-advancing data mining technologies) in order to make ours a country of peace, prosperity and equal opportunity (after all, if you want peace, work for justice). As Robert Kennedy said:

“Gross National Product measures neither the health of our children, the quality of their education, nor the joy of their play. It measures neither the beauty of our poetry, nor the strength of our marriages. It is indifferent to the decency of our factories and the safety of our streets alike. It measures neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our wit nor our courage, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country. It measures everything in short, except that which makes life worth living. It can tell us everything about our country, except those things that make us proud to be a part of it.”