"Political Conduct" archive
Monday 29 January
- What we owe our people in uniform (09:08) - I can’t get the pictures from Iraq out of my mind – soldiers who will never come home, others with multiple missing limbs and ingrained psychological trauma. Now, amid the rising hot air of the 2008 presidential campaign, a moment of sanity last week when U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) implored his Senate colleagues to “step up” and confront the Iraq issue squarely. “We owe it to those men and women that we send into... | 0 Trackbacks
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Monday 22 January
- Your State of the Union speech (10:07) - Tomorrow night the president will stride into the House chamber to deliver a challenging State of the Union speech, which could easily be dead on arrival or so soft-peddled it goes flat. But what if you were to deliver the speech – what would be your main talking points? Let’s create the citizen state of the union speech! I ask this because I’m wondering what people really want to hear – that is, how people... | 0 Trackbacks
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Monday 13 November
- The sneak preview of the American mood (10:07) - It’s been nearly a week since the mid-term elections. What can we now say about the public mood and the opportunities that lie ahead for forging a different path in public life and politics? Later today, I will participate in a roundtable at the National Archives sponsored by the Kettering Foundation and the presidential libraries on “Democracy’s Challenge: Reclaiming the Public’s Role”; then, this Wednesday, I will host a teleconference on the meaning of the... | 0 Trackbacks
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Monday 9 October
- The Mark Foley affair (12:34) - I came to work today not wanting to write about the Rep. Mark Foley scandal on Capitol Hill. I didn’t want to simply vent over yet another congressional brouhaha. But I find I must turn my attention there. At the very time I am watching the Foley affair unfold, I am reading a book on the meaning of “beauty” – On Beauty and Being Just, by Elaine Scarry. Wow! What a contrast, or is it?... | 0 Trackbacks
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Monday 24 July
- Who can hear us? (08:46) - Who can hear us? Here’s my new proposal: anyone who holds a leadership position of any kind should have to speak (let’s say, no less than three times a year) before audiences they know disagree with them, or are even hostile to their views. I’ve been thinking about this idea for awhile; but I was reminded of it again as I watched President Bush speak before the annual NAACP convention last week. For six long... | 0 Trackbacks
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Monday 12 June
- Finding leaders we respect (10:48) - I’m often asked by people to name leaders I respect. What follows is my short list. What’s surprising is who is on it – and why. I wonder who makes your list. I offer these names by way of saying that I believe most people who go into leadership do so for good and noble reasons. That’s been my experience. But what happens to these individuals along the way is another story. People get caught... | 0 Trackbacks
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Monday 10 April
- Which leaders do you stand beside? (16:22) - Wherever I go on my book tour, one of the most pressing questions I get is this one: How can we find the leaders we seek? People’s disgust with the quality of leadership in the country, and in their local communities, is palpable and deep. What can we do? First off, I am always quick to say that our leaders in Washington, D.C., will not the lead the way forward. In fact, I believe they... | 0 Trackbacks
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Wednesday 1 February
- The State of Our Union - Listening to Nobody (12:14) - I watched President Bush and Governor Kaine last night in total shock and awe. Surely, they can’t believe the American people buy what they’re peddling. And members of Congress who keep howling and standing and clapping, surely they must know their posturing is silly. What about the real America? There were three phrases that framed last night’s speeches: “There is no honor in retreat;” America is a “hopeful society;” and there is “no higher calling... | 0 Trackbacks
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Monday 25 April
- Mirroring Reality (08:54) - This candidate for mayor of San Antonio may have failed the test of where to draw the line. How far will voters go? Last week I told a story (see below) about where to draw lines on matters of convenience and ease. Well, last Friday, I read an article about Julian Castro, a candidate for major of San Antonio who couldn’t make it to the annual River Parade through downtown. So what did he do?...
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Friday 28 January
- Will & Grace (16:35) - Yesterday, Maryland Governor Bob Ehrlich, in his State of the State address, chastised state legislators to be more respectful of the office of governor. Too bad there’s too little will and grace in Maryland right now – and in the rest of country – for such respect in politics to prevail. Ehrlich has been engaged in hand-to-hand combat with members of the state legislature for months. Some people blame his efforts to ram through...
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Thursday 6 January
- In the Crossfire (08:40) - God only knows what’s in the Kool-Aid over at CNN these days. The network announced today the end of CNN”S “Crossfire” and it came not a day too soon. I congratulate them. I only wish I was afforded the opportunity to do so long ago! “Crossfire” has been a crabby, cranky program filled with unnecessary hype in an age when people’s reality is regularly distorted. I know few people outside of Washington, D.C. who could...
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Tuesday 16 November
- Rethinking Our Expectations (16:07) - I have been wondering why I haven’t written anything since the presidential election. Each time I have sat down to write, I have felt compelled to turn away – actually, the feeling is closer to being repulsed. The campaign left me feeling angry and disgusted. The candidates actively destroyed each other over the course of many months, and then had the audacity to call for unity the day after the election. How could they seriously...
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Monday 8 November
- Not Just Unity or Victory (11:23) - The talk about unity keeps unfolding across our land, but is it worth anything? What do we seek in the name of unity? I have long argued that the political pundits and pollsters and professionals made more of people’s differences in this past election cycle than actually exist. As David Brooks said in a recent column: The red and blue maps that have been popping up in the papers again this week are certainly striking,...
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Wednesday 3 November
- Starting an Uphill Battle (17:33) - Last night and still this morning I felt like I had been kicked in the stomach. This campaign has left me feeling enormously empty and frustrated and wondering why we insist on going down the path we do. Seeing the vast swath of red states sandwiched in-between the smaller blue areas took my breath away. It’s not that I didn’t see it coming; for God’s sake, this red-blue division has been the easy narrative of...
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Monday 1 November
- Restoring Our Faith (14:41) - On this election eve, the nation is bracing itself: What will happen? Who will win? Will we even know the victor when we finally rest our weary heads on our pillows? But I have a different thought in mind: Who will we become in the months ahead? As I have crisscrossed the nation in recent weeks, it is this thought to which I continually find myself returning. Everyday we hear that this is a divided...
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Thursday 14 October
- Boo (08:49) - Richard C. Harwood, President, The Harwood Institute for Public Innovation What an abhorrent, insulting, incoherent and, most of all, disingenuous performance last night by the two presidential candidates. I literally wanted to stand up in my family room and boo so loudly they could hear me in Tempe. Did you notice how when the two candidates gave their closing statements, all of a sudden their language, physical demeanor, and tone became “presidential”? And yet all...
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Monday 11 October
- The Right Man, Right Time, Right Place (10:08) - Richard C. Harwood, President, The Harwood Institute for Public Innovation For me, the second presidential debate sounded almost like a real debate, until I awoke from my slumber and realized what was happening. The two candidates spun their talking points bravely but the campaign – despite people’s interest and engagement across the nation – remains stuck in place for now. But there is an alternate path. Here’s what I mean. The candidates have successfully gotten...
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Wednesday 6 October
- Truth, Ambiguity & the Pursuit of Leadership (13:13) - Richard C. Harwood, President, The Harwood Institute for Public Innovation As I watched last night’s vice-presidential debate it was enormously revealing about the fundamental challenge Americans confront in this election: which truth to believe. Both candidates, both campaigns, and voters on all sides have talked passionately about the “distortions” in this campaign. There are too many to count. But the argument over these distortions fails to pinpoint our real dilemma. After the first presidential debate...
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Friday 1 October
- The Real Debate (20:57) - Richard C. Harwood, President, The Harwood Institute for Public Innovation The pundits were proven wrong, the candidates did engage, and the people won. Now we have a genuine race and a clear choice. What was so evident to me last night was a clash in narratives between certitude and competence. President Bush offered the candidacy of certitude. Throughout the debate, he consistently used words and phrases such as: “liberty, tyranny, freedom, precious, change the world,...
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Tuesday 21 September
- Eye On America (10:55) - The Dan Rather fiasco over President Bush’s military service record is rapidly deteriorating into a free-fall for CBS News and a round-the-clock free-for-all for pundits and analysts. The problem is that we will miss the real issue in all this brouhaha. CBS News rushed to use documents in a news story that were poorly checked out. They decided to stretch the truth as far as they could take it, hoping, despite warning signs, that everything... | 191 Trackbacks
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Thursday 29 July
- An Authentic Voice of Hope (15:07) - Today I feel compelled to talk about John Edwards’ speech last night, but I am continually drawn to the night before and Barack Obama. Indeed, with each passing moment, his speech burns brighter in my mind and heart. There were certain qualities to Obama’s speech that make it remarkably authentic and incredibly refreshing. For me, it is not that he is new on the political scene; in fact, it took me awhile to get over... | 81 Trackbacks
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Tuesday 27 July
- A Profound Quiet (13:06) - On Monday night at the Democratic Convention all talking and rhetoric stopped for a moment during the solemn and touching remembrances for 9/11. (Click here, here, and here for accounts) I often chagrin the fact that 9/11 is exploited for political and consumer purposes; last night was different. A profound quiet seemed to come over the proceedings as a few speakers gave words to haunting memories that still swirl within us. This time there was... | 116 Trackbacks
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Monday 26 July
- News from the Convention? (12:33) - The noise is deafening at times: the pundits and news media who tell us there is nothing newsworthy about the political conventions which start today. They’re wrong. They, of course, want to use the master narrative of conflict as the gauge of newsworthiness. If there is no conflict – no floor fights, no battle for the vice-presidential spot, no tension between different party factions – then there is no news to report. I don’t agree....
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Friday 23 July
- Convention Coverage (10:51) - As we all follow the upcoming political conventions, please check back often. Next week, I will be offering frequent thoughts on what we are hearing from the Democratic Convention, and on what we should be hearing. I'm also interested in what you want to hear from the convention speakers, so add your voice in the comments section.... | 7 Trackbacks
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Monday 19 July
- Facts Aren't The Whole Story (11:27) - I went to see Michael Moore’s film Fahrenheit 9/11 this weekend. It was a powerful movie. For those people who already believe the War in Iraq was a bad move, it only gives more ammunition to confirm their position. And yet, as I watched the film I found myself deeply disturbed. The film distorted certain facts by providing little context; used editing techniques to suggest seamless connections that actually were "jumps in logic"; pulled at... | 210 Trackbacks
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Friday 11 June
- The Stain of Red and Blue (17:01) - A column of mine on the growing stain of red and blue appeared in the Christan Science Monitor yesterday. You can read it here. As always, I appreciate any comments you have on the piece.... | 218 Trackbacks
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Monday 7 June
- Remembering Reagan (12:09) - I will never use this space to spout off about politics.
But former President Ronald Reagan’s death makes me think of two important public ideas that seem to have been lost in recent times.
I never supported the policies of Ronald Reagan. In fact, I worked on the staff of the 1984 presidential campaign that opposed him. I was 23 years old, it was about my 23rd political campaign, and it was my last one. I swore off campaigns after that year because I didn’t believe politics gave people the sense of possibility they yearned for. Just a few years later, I started my present work.
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