W MBA

As we near the end of the Bush reign we will probably see a lot more of the kind of W-analizations that appears in The American Thinker today, titled, A Theory of W. While this one has what could be characterized as some overstatements, those parts that aren't exaggerated seem to make pretty good sense.

For instance, the author credits Bush with intentionally shunning the east-coast Yale elitists by

to finish....

maintaining his Texas accent and anti-narcisstic life-style:

He was smart enough for Yale and Harvard Business School, and learned to despise (and be despised by) slick Eastern Establishment kids (yes, like John Kerry again). Afterwards he went back to Midland, TX, the last place any ambitious Yalie would want to live. And he made it work. He was the anti-Yalie in the family. (That's of course why he says "Noo-kyoo-lrr". 'Cause that's how they say it in Texas. He could pronounce it like William F. Buckley, but he'll be damned if he's gonna give them the satisfaction. Compare that to Hillary's or Gore's phony preacher accents.)...So W ignored DC Society, and just got to sleep by 9:00 pm every night. Being ignored by the President drove naturally them to eight years of unrelenting collective fury.

One of Bush's characteristics not mentioned in the article is his loyalty, which has gotten him in lots of "trouble" around Washington but which helps to rate him very high on my list of respected people. He is steadfastly unwilling to throw a collegue under the bus as a way to placate those who would criticize his policy. He understands, I think, that offering up a co-worker in his administration as a sacrifice to his enemies and critics is not only corrosive to morale, but also slowly and insidiously weakens his leadership and long-term effectiveness.

The author touches on something that will be much further discussed in Bush's aftermath, I think: that he leads as a CEO, because of his MBA training. He is really the anti-politician in many ways, or perhaps the uber-politician, in that he has learned how to manage and motivate his staff, and relies on them to implement the vision without the need to politicize the process.

A good, thought-provoking read.