I would add: focus on a candidate's ability to inspire, connect, get along, yes, get along, with all sorts of people and opponents, and making deals that don't sacrifice your principles.
The prevailing thought is that these debates are the most important thing for a candidate to win. Anybody can memorize, anybody can parrot others, anybody can offer words, but not everybody is out front about who they are and what they think. This is the revival Trump has wrought.
| ...to inspire, connect, get along, yes, get along, with all sorts of people and opponents, and making deals that don't sacrifice your principles. Yes, a very good addition indeed. Getting along with even opponents -- how important that is! And it's often overlooked. Trump has beat up on and later thanked dozens of people in the last several months. Trump doesn't burn bridges. He doesn't jot down the names of people he will never speak to again in a little black book. No, he knows that today's enemy may eventually come around and maybe become the pivot point for winning a key deal! |
| ...get along, with all sorts of people and opponents, and making deals that don't sacrifice your principles... Further to your nice addition, I found a wonderful Emerson quote that speaks directly to this point! Don't be so tender at making an enemy now and then. Be willing to go to Coventry sometimes, and let the populace bestow on you their coldest contempt. The finished man of the world must eat of every apple once. He must hold his hatreds also at arm's length, and not remember spite. He has neither friends nor enemies, but values men only as channels of power. Ralph Waldo Emerson |