The Way I See Things

Back in my junior high days, I was on the school's basketball team. Jr. Varsity and Varsity.

As required and expected, I attended the practices and the games. I knew the drills. I knew the positions I was expected to know. I knew the playbook. I knew the offenses and defenses.

By all accounts, I was a valued member of the team. However...
I sat the bench.

I don't mean 'I suited up but rarely played.' I mean I sat the bench because...
I didn't have a uniform.

I wasn't sick. I wasn't injured. I wasn't ineligible. I was a member of the team but...
I was NOT...
A player.

I was a 'manager'. A glorified ball boy. I wasn't an alternate. I was never going to suit up. I did things like collect/distribute balls. Help out in the drills and practices. Maintain equipment. But, again, I reiterate...
I was NOT...
A player.

What does this have to do with politics?

Despite what I did.
Despite what I observed.
Despite what I knew.
Never, ever, would I be qualified...
On any day...
To be...
Athletic Director.

With all her self-laudatory statements to the contrary, prior to 2000, I can't find any legislation, anywhere, that was sponsored, introduced and/or passed by...
Hillary Clinton.

I can't find any evidence that she's:
1) Any more qualified to handle a global crisis;
2) Any more capable of being a steward of an economy--of any size! (Does the First Lady--of a state or the country--even have to concern herself with, y'know, the household budget? Buying food? Doing laundry?);
3) At all able to alter the existing paradigm--in which government tends to be a tool of special interests/corporations/lobbies--and returns us all to working on behalf of the people of the United States of America.

Being a ball boy doesn't qualify you to be the athletic director.

You have to be more than a ball boy; more than a player.
You have to be a student of the game.

You have to take the talent you have and be a visionary.

You cannot use the currency of your associates' accomplishments, you have to create your own.

You have to understand, beyond any one team, what's best for all the teams, the players, the school, the district, the families.

Osmosis is neither the conveyer nor the qualifier of such talent.

That sort of aspiration--the ability to make it real--requires taking risks.
Not the risks of a follower.
Not the risks of an imitator.
But EXTRAORDINARY risks.

It means moving beyond what is ordinary and what is safe. It demands a well-informed, soundly reasoned, knowledgeable risk. Which equals...
A good decision.

Senator Obama knows how to play ball.
Senator Obama knows how to coach/mentor.
Senator Obama knows how to lead, inspire and educate/inform those that work with him.
Senator Obama knows how to orchestrate movement and change.
Senator Obama has demonstrated these qualities.

What does Senator Clinton know?
What has she demonstrated?