Posted by Jed Lewison on Wed Apr 16, 2008 at 9:50 AM Pacific

Speaking truth to power

Today's WaPo is out with results from a new poll confirming what we had hoped -- Clinton's "bitter" gambit boomeranged. In a companion article, the Post explores Clinton's growing honesty perception problem -- most voters don't think she's honest or trustworthy.

In that article, the most revealing passage was this one -- and it had nothing to do with the poll itself:

One Clinton insider announced in a strategy meeting it was ridiculous to have imagined the first lady ever having been in danger, or for Clinton to have thought she was -- a slap at the senator from New York that other advisers described as disrespectful.

That right there is the entire problem of the Clinton campaign. Saying something obviously true is considered a slap. In healthy organizations, telling the truth is rewarded; in dysfunctional ones, it's treated as disrespect and you get shunned.

We can't afford another President who won't let his or her staff speak truth to power.

That's the kind of organizational failure that gets us stuck in Iraq.

Speaking truth to power

Today's WaPo is out with results from a new poll confirming what we had hoped -- Clinton's "bitter" gambit boomeranged. In a companion article, the Post explores Clinton's growing honesty perception problem -- most voters don't think she's honest or trustworthy.

In that article, the most revealing passage was this one -- and it had nothing to do with the poll itself:

One Clinton insider announced in a strategy meeting it was ridiculous to have imagined the first lady ever having been in danger, or for Clinton to have thought she was -- a slap at the senator from New York that other advisers described as disrespectful.

That right there is the entire problem of the Clinton campaign. Saying something obviously true is considered a slap. In healthy organizations, telling the truth is rewarded; in dysfunctional ones, it's treated as disrespect and you get shunned.

We can't afford another President who won't let his or her staff speak truth to power.

That's the kind of organizational failure that gets us stuck in Iraq.

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