Quote:
Originally Posted by GeneW
If the C average guy you're speaking of is Bush he has a lot of company.
The most educated President in US history was Woodrow Wilson. He held a PhD in Political Science. Only PhD to ever be President. Some people say that Obama is the most educated President in History. This is patent non-sense; many many US Presidents were lawyers. Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Bill Clinton, and quite a few others were lawyers. Ford and Clinton were graduates of Yale Law School. Nixon graduated from Duke University.
Wilson is known for letting the British skunk him into declaring an unpopular and unnecessary war on Germany. We were neutral until about 1916-1917, when US banking interests decided that their seven billion in loans to the British were not going to get repaid if the Brits lost the war. Hence Wilson's Advisors, including a member of the Council of Foreign Relations named Edward House, lobbied him to move towards the British.
Wilson also introduced the Income Tax, central economic planning and a lot of other modern day woes into American life.
Harry S. Truman never went to college. I think he'd do a better job than our current Harvard educated whiz kid.
CEOs do not win popular votes. They obtain a majority of shareholder votes and can be expelled at any time from the position.
CEOs keep their position at the sufferance of shareholders. Their most bitter enemies are their rivals for power in the office. They must always be on guard from intrigue from VPs and assistants who fancy that they could do a better job if they were given the nod.
The Office is a jungle. If you've never worked in an office let me break it down for you. Everyone wants to keep their rice bowl and gain more power, prestige, turf and influence. They jealously guard their things and authority. There is a pecking order, even in nice places.
The higher up you go, the more power and juice you got and the harder you fall when you fall from favor. You grow empires by hiring more people, poaching staff from other departments and hoarding resources for yourself. You score points at meetings, humiliating and downgrading others. It's how things go with people - in government it's almost the same way.
This is how it is at the bottom of the power pyramid. As you go up in rank the stakes and the consequences also grow bigger.
When you get to the top you have no friends. You are alone. You are in the dark in many ways, because people have an agenda for keeping you in the dark. You can punish them so they will never be completely frank with you. You can get other people punished so anyone under them will not be frank with you either. Nobody wants to say that the Emperor has no clothes.
This is the world of the CEO. Powerful. Alone. At the top. Able to read between the lines and judge which is said and not said but should be said.
Few people can manage up there. You have to be people smart, book smart and have a lot of confidence in yourself.
Gene
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A very eye-opening post
Not sure about the whiz kid comment..., but I respect others and their opinions. My honors thesis is actually about psychological perceptions, stereotypes, and President Obama (more in depth than this obviously). I guess my idea of the fathered in CEO, is one of the exception to the rule, or the improbable. Much like the penguin being a bird that cannot fly. Thanks once again for the well-stated presidential history lesson.
Matt
02-16-2009, 08:29 PM
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