I know I keep saying the same, because it’s true, “not one primary vote has been cast”, but I think Newt Gingrich will likely beat Romney for the nomination, and I base my prediction on foreign policy along with Gingrich’s debating skills.
You’re dead-bang right, when you state that the GOP has always prided itself for being the knowledgeable foreign policy party.
Last night, Ollie North said that Newt Gingrich knows more about foreign policy than all of the candidates on the stage combined. A lot of voters probably agree.
The very thought of Iran with nukes scares every thinking person, but maybe that issue will soon be moot. Who knows? If not, it’s almost a guarantee that under obama’s watch, Iran has clear sailing unless Israel acts alone and then the US is forced to help.
For me it’s not just knowledge but what one does with it. I know history teachers with an absolutely encyclopedic knowledge of US History and they’re still raving moonbats. Knowledge is very different than wisdom. Knowledge is dispensed at every Ivy League college in the country. We’ve had a number of leaders from them in the past 20 or so years. Clinton is a Rhodes Scholar. Unlike the Nobel Peace Prize, those awards aren’t handed out in boxes of Cracker Jacks. For all of Clinton’s knowledge, even his ability to practically inhale (perhaps that’s not the right word to use with him) facts he lacked wisdom and that was key to his downfall.
Consider: you can drop a green LCpl into a war zone in a foreign land with a culture & language he barely understands and where he’s confronted with a situation he’s never experienced before. Yet, he can make the exact right decision on the spur of the moment. Would it help if he knew more about the people? Perhaps, but there was much more to consider than “facts”. Drop an expert in (name your war torn country here) in place of the LCpl and he’s liable to get the entire squadron killed. No one would argue the LCpl knows much less than the “expert”. Heck, he’s probably been given little more than a basic briefing. What he does have is the ability to make an extremely critical decision based on the (few) facts he knows and the situation as it exists. Meanwhile, the expert is still assessing options A & B when the bullet flies through his chest. The expert is important but the decisonmaker is critical.
While experts are, without a doubt, who you want for in depth research, analysis and briefings, big picture guys are good at what they do (making decisions based on information the “experts” bring them). And they have enough confidence in themselves and their ability to find a solution so that they don’t waste time second guessing themselves. “Ideas” have a lot of gray areas but decisions are usually black or white.
“Experts” are convinced they know everything and don’t need others’ advice. People who readily acknowledge their shortcomings are keenly aware of their strengths and aren’t so wrapped up in their own egos to ask for advice from people who DO have specialized expertise in critical areas. And, because their ability to make good decisions (which is THEIR particular expertise) depends on having the best information available they’re “experts” at finding the best experts . Being aware of one’s limitations tends to make people better able to consider a variety of options and ideas (and much more quickly) than someone wallowing in information overload and afraid to make a mistake.
We’ve becomed conditioned to believe our leaders need to have certain kinds of knowledge instead of certain kinds of skills. It’s why we’ve ended up with an entrenched political class. Everyone thought David Brooks was an arrogant twit when he said we should leave governing to the experts, but that’s exactly what’s happening here. “Well, the things happening now are too important to trust to a novice” (i.e. someone who may have great leadership skills but isn’t plugged in to a political machine at one level or another). There’s a certain irony in the fact that many people think the nation is at too critical of a tipping point to trust the EXECUTIVE branch to an...EXECUTIVE. For myself I guess I’ve come to the conclusion that this time in our history is too important to continue doing what we’ve always done. That’s the definition of insanity.
I just want someone with the same common sense as the average American. People who spend too much time in the rarified air of the permanent political class forget that 1+1=2. You can play with the numbers all you want and you aren’t ever going to get it to equal 73 but “experts” generally manage to convince themselves they can. Besides, you can find experts on Iran, Islam, Russia, palm reading, energy policy, coal mining, horror films, making fudge, etc. We don’t have a problem finding experts. We need visionaries. Cain is a visionary.
Cindie