Monday, January 2, 2012

"Present"-dent

There is a story about the Artist Formerly Known As Prince. Apparently someone interested in writing an article about him went back to his school days in search of some youth pictures and found nothing. He had no graduation picture, he was absent from the club and athletic pictures--the guy had no picture record of his high school experience. When asked about this he said it was planned by him to have no record of his early life. Young guys always can be made to look silly with old styles, interests, old mistakes. He said he purposely avoided anything that in his history might detract from his music and art he knew was coming. Astonishing vision and confidence.

A track record can be bad for politicians too. Gingrich is so arrogant he is willing to say anything, anytime with the confidence he can explain it later. Obama has been specifically attacked for being noncommittal in voting "present" on important votes in an effort not to offend anyone. This issue was raised by Hilliary in the primary in 2008. It is an unfair charge. Obama voted "present" 127 times as a state senator, but that was three percent of his votes. He was absent 80% of votes running for president but McCain was absent over 70%; when you're running for president, you are little else.

But it is a strange world in which you must hide from your opinions.

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