Portland, ME
It opened my eyes wide. I was very young and an aide to a big-city mayor. I was a backbencher in a meeting with the mayor and top advisors as the city burned from a series suspicious fires. The advice his top policy aide offered on what to do and say in the literal heat of the moment? Nothing. He was told that arson is a negative issue and he shouldn’t be associated with it, as if he was just some guy running a dry cleaners down the street.
I was as appalled as I was powerless. His top aides would have said I was naïve in thinking that this was an abrogation of leadership. Crazy me, since it most certainly was.
I was reminded of that story the other day when MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace told Donny Deutsch on the latter’s podcast about a 2002 White House meeting with President George Bush and top advisors. Washington DC was being victimized by a sniper who had killed 10 people. The top officials saw no reason for Bush to comment on a local matter, however, and he certainly had more latitude than did that big-city mayor to avoid doing so. Wallace urged Bush to say something, nonetheless, as a leader and human being in a capital city filled with fear, dread, and death. She told Deutsch that it was the obvious, straightforward, and right thing to do. Bush did so.
It's frightening how many times people in leadership positions - all of us, really - fail to see and address the obvious. We over-complicate basic right-wrong decisions and, in the process, we all pay the price. Yes, sometimes the answer is right in front of you.
