Tomorrow in Iowa starts the search for an excellent new president. It will be a long time before we finish the election process, but it will be worth all the work. We have seven years years of governance behind us that stand in stark contrast to anything beginning to resemble executive excellence. Leadership excellence is hard to describe. But, if you look closely, you know it when you see it.
These are the leadership traits that make it for me -- authenticity, wisdom, honesty, accountability, self-awareness, intelligence, ability to articulate, toughness, stability, capacity to hold onto the big picture, empathy, world view based on experience or background, and a good self-deprecating sense of humor.
I have been catching up with my favorite bloggers this morning and remembered once again why they are all on my favorites list. I present them in no particular order and with no specific definitions of why they show excellence. Just read their stuff and you will understand.
- "The Brzezinski Challenge for Presidential Contenders in 2008," by Steve Clemons of The Washington Note. The post contains several interesting Z. Brzezinski doodle/drawings.
- "9/11 Commission: Our investigation was obstructed," by Glenn Greenwald at Salon.com. Just the best investigative journalist around.
- Authors "Lapopessa" and "Buckarooskidoo," blog at Make it Stop! Make it Stop! Features an important editorial and a great best-worst list.
- "Today I'm burning despair's chair," by "txsharon" at Bluedaze. Passionate and personal from a warrior woman.
- "Festival of the Trees - #19," by Lorianne DiSabato at "Hoarded Ordinaries." Writer and photographer par excellence.
- "Happy New Year," by "Spadoman" at Round Circle. A writer with soul.
- "The Kingdom of God," by Bobby Farouk at MRBFK. A favorite for a very long time.
- "welcome to the new year," by "betmo" at life's journey. A committed activist who writes with authenticity.
- "Many Years of Favorite Memories, in Review." The Future was Yesterday pulls no punches with this great post that will grab you and hold on.
View my current slide show about the Bush years, "Millennium," at the bottom of this column.
My links:
(Cross-posted at The Reaction.)
My “creativity and dreaming” post today at Making Good Mondays is about rocks.
Technorati tags: politics blogging writing leadership] new year
4 comments:
Nice slide show!
Glad you liked it. Blogger and Picassa Web albums make them fun to do.
Come by any time.
Happy New Year!
"Tomorrow in Iowa starts the search for an excellent new president."
It's unfortunate that tomorrow also means WE will have less choices.
"Excellent President"? Have you bumped your head?:)
Good morning to you, Future. As a matter of fact, I do have persistent dizziness. And it is not because I am blond (I say and apologize to all blonds).
Yes, now we do have fewer choices. Our primary in Texas is early in March, so it will be mostly over by then. My choice was Chris Dodd and he didn't resonate with anybody, so now I will look again at the top three, and see how they deal with the new information.
Maybe "excellent' is not the best word. But I have to say that Democrats put up some good candidates. I could have been happy with most any of them except Gravel. And compared to the Republicans, I won't even go there.
I do like it that a lot of new people got interested in politics and did something about it.
There is a future tomorrow also, my friend.
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