Presidential Candidates, CEO's, Lunatics and Sons

When Sarah Palin was announced as the running mate for John McCain there was considerable conversation about her four children and whether she could handle the Vice Presidency and still do justice to her family responsibilities. A few commentators were honest enough to admit that a political career also takes a toll on fathers, though it seems to be more acceptable for fathers to neglect their families than for mothers. Indeed many fathers neglect their families regardless of what kind of career they pursue. Nonetheless, it is very clear that high profile, high consequence jobs like President or Vice President will result in very little time for family life. The result is that most people in those kinds of roles are people I would never want my sons or daughter to be like.



Back in the 90's, in 1997 to be exact, Robert Samuelson wrote a terrific commentary piece in Newsweek about this sort of thing, entitled 'Close to the Lunatic Edge'. The article is mostly about annual reports and what they reveal about the priorities of a company, but at the end he notes that they also tell you something about the people running the company, how they feel entitled to their lavish pay, and how their single-mindedness verges on fanaticism. He quotes Jack Welch of GE saying of CEO's, "You cannot be a moderate, balanced, thoughtful, careful articulator of policy. You've got to be on the lunatic fringe."



Sad but true, in politics as well as business. In any high profile, high power position including major sports coaches, business leaders, politicians and most any other line of work, the people at the very top are borderline lunatics in their singleminded devotion to their career. Most of them are people that you would never want your son or daughter to be like when they grow up. That certainly includes Jack Welch in my opinion. Their lives are unbalanced to the point of absurdity, their families are typically neglected or abandoned, and their egos are most often larger than the great outdoors. I would be hard pressed to think of either a presidential candidate or a CEO that serves as a role example that I would hold up to my children and say, 'Be like him!'. I am speaking here of large company CEOs, as small businesses vary all over the map. Neither Obama nor McCain offer a good role model of what a father should be as far as I can tell.



So, to pick out Sarah Palin for this criticism is very odd but interesting. Pretty much all politicians at the national level have not fulfilled their family responsibilities very well. It does point out that as a society we still expect better things from mothers than from fathers. And I do indeed mean better things, not just different things. To be as unbalanced and unresponsible in so many key areas of life as most large company CEOs and national level politicians are is reprehensible. It would be much better if the only people allowed to run for President were people who did not want the job. That is how it was , or at least appeared to be, with Washington. He was 'drafted'. It has only been true a few times since, as when Truman became President when FDR died. Gerald Ford would be another example. It is interesting that President's Truman and Ford, especially in retrospect, became so well loved by the nation for their role in a job they never wanted. But Ford and Truman were exceptions that resulted from bad circumstances. Too bad we cannot find a way to draft a different kind of candidate every four years.