Saleability and competence

This afternoon we attended one of the Sundance Film Festival screenings and saw “Bhutto,” a documentary on the late Benazir Bhutto. This film did a good job in providing historical perspective on Pakistan, but was obviously one-sided in favor of the twice-prime minister of that country. She was in fact extremely popular, a compelling speaker, but totally incompetent when it came to governance. This painfully reminded me of Barack Obama, who is a fantastic orator, a great salesman, but has not yet figured out how to successfully advance the agenda he promised through the horrible political maze. The same hard truth applies to these sweet talkers that are great at landing top jobs, but ill equipped to fulfill their promises.

These “born-salesmen” are now turning to be a curse and a menace to our well-being. Ever since we began to manufacture less and market more, we've become a nation of BS artists and this has got to change! We need to pinch ourselves, go beyond the vernacular and start asking some important questions: What's that guy or girl's experience, common sense and ability to discern what needs to be done and in which order. We need to start learning to think more critically – more cynically is okay with me – and really see what the charmer has “under the hood.” Then, and only then, we might start getting our money's worth!