During my career, it often seemed to me I would receive credit when I didn’t deserve it, I would receive blame when I didn’t deserve it, and no one would notice when I accomplished something I thought was especially praiseworthy.
There were many times when I received credit for the successful completion of a deal even though others deserved more credit than me. In those instances, I always tried to give the credit to the people who actually deserved it. Although I did not like receiving undeserved credit, it motivated me to show I deserved the praise I was receiving. It made me work harder because I wanted to earn the confidence and meet the expectations of those to whom I was accountable.
There were other times in my career when I felt I was being blamed for something that was totally beyond my control. In those instances, it would normally make matters worse if I tried to defend myself or to blame someone else. I found it was best to take my lumps and move on.
I was always my own worst critic, but occasionally I would be extremely proud of something I had accomplished. In most of those cases, no one else seemed to notice or care about what I had accomplished. But it never worked out very well for me when I tried to boast about my own accomplishments. Most people don’t respond well to someone who is bragging about himself or is engaged in an act of self-praise. The reaction is likely to be, “What’s the big deal? That’s why you are being paid. You only did what you were paid to do.”
We all make mistakes. In my experience, it always worked best for me when I acknowledged my mistakes and accepted responsibility for them. Most people are very forgiving, especially when you point out and admit your own mistake. When you make a mistake, the worst thing you can do is conceal it and hope no one will ever find out. The cover-up is always worse than the original sin.
My experiences, of course, clearly demonstrate I am not and never have been qualified to be a politician. The typical politician will claim credit for anything that goes well, even if he or she opposed or had nothing to do with whatever worked, and will blame someone else for anything that goes wrong, even if he or she sponsored or supported the program or policy that failed. Politicians seem to be unable to accept responsibility for their actions. As the columnist Charley Reese wrote many years ago, “Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.” Most politicians will never admit they made a mistake, and they will try to conceal their mistakes so you will never find out about them. Charley Reese wrote that politicians “spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault.”
I have been thinking about my own experiences with credit and blame this week in connection with the surprising award of the Nobel Peace Prize to President Barak Obama. It is clear President Obama has not earned and did not deserve the Nobel Peace Prize. To his credit, President Obama even acknowledged he has not earned the prize. In a rare act of humility for a politician, President Obama said, “I do not view it as a recognition of my own accomplishments but rather an affirmation of American leadership on behalf of aspirations held by people in all nations.” He also said he would accept the award as a “call to action” to confront the challenges of the 21st century.
Many people on both the left and the right have criticized the Nobel Committee for awarding the prize to President Obama. These criticisms, I believe, are justified. I don’t agree, however, with those who seem to be blaming President Obama for receiving the award or who think he should refuse to accept the award. It does not make sense to blame President Obama for something over which he had no control. I think it would also send the wrong message to the rest of the world if President Obama refused to accept a peace prize. He should accept the award with humility, as he has done, and he should use the award as motivation to work even harder for world peace. Of course, every student of history and every realist know world peace will never be achieved. There always have been and there always will be conflicts in the world. But we will always need peacemakers who are trying to end the conflicts. All of us should want our leaders to be seeking world peace as a primary and never-ending goal.
I would like to see President Obama use the honor of receiving the Nobel Peace Prize as an opportunity to seek peace in Washington, D.C. as well as peace in the world. It seems to me that the political discourse in this country reaches a new low almost everyday. Politicians on both sides spend far too much time and energy calling each other names and blaming each other for our problems when they should be engaging in a serious and honest debate about how to solve our problems. President Obama did not create the nasty political environment, but he also has not made any obvious efforts to change it. At times, it seems to me President Obama’s rhetoric toward his political opponents at home has been harsher than his rhetoric toward the tyrants and dictators who are threatening our national security abroad. President Obama repeatedly blames the prior Administration and the Republicans for all of the country’s problems. Even though the Democrats control both Houses of Congress, President Obama continues to blame Republicans when he has difficulty getting his legislative priorities through Congress. As the leader of our country, President Obama is setting the tone in Washington, but it is not the tone he promised.
During the Presidential campaign, President Obama promised to establish a new tone in Washington and to govern in a bipartisan manner. This would be a great time for him to start doing so. I acknowledge it is difficult to establish a new tone and to work in a bipartisan manner when your opponents are taking shots at you at every opportunity. But the top person in any organization is responsible for setting the tone for the entire organization. I have witnessed numerous examples of how a new chief executive officer of a company can change the entire tone and atmosphere within the company in a very short period of time. In my opinion, President Obama could change the tone of the political debate in this country if he wanted to do so. If he takes the lead, I believe his political opponents will be forced to follow or they will pay a heavy price for failing to do so.
I would also like to see President Obama use the honor of receiving the Noble Peace Prize as an opportunity to remind the rest of the world that the United States of America has been the greatest force for good in the history of the world. During the first nine months of his Administration, President Obama has not been a strong advocate for the important role the United States plays in the world arena. Instead, he has repeatedly apologized for the United States and has blamed the United States for many of the world’s problems.
Our country is not perfect and never will be. But our country has done more to resist evil, promote peace, and help the helpless than any other country. In almost every instance where there is a conflict in the world, the United States takes a lead role in trying to resolve the conflict and achieve peace. Yes, we have made mistakes, but some of our biggest mistakes have been waiting too long and watching from a distance while innocent human beings were being slaughtered by evil tyrants and dictators.
In the Sunday edition of The New York Times, the columnist Thomas L. Friedman wrote the speech he hopes President Obama will deliver when he accepts the Nobel Peace Prize. Among other things, Mr. Friedman suggested President Obama say the following things in his acceptance speech:
“I cannot accept this award on my behalf at all. But I will accept it on behalf of the most important peacekeepers in the world for the last century—the men and women of the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps. I will accept this award on behalf of the American soldiers who landed on Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944 to liberate Europe from the grip of Nazi fascism. I will accept this award on behalf of the American soldiers and sailors who fought on the high seas and forlorn islands in the Pacific to free East Asia from Japanese tyranny in the Second World War. … I will accept this award on behalf of the tens of thousands of American soldiers who protected Europe from Communist dictatorship throughout the 50 years of the cold war. I will accept this award on behalf of the American soldiers who stand guard today at outposts in the mountains and deserts of Afghanistan to give that country, and particularly its women and girls, a chance to live a decent life free from the Taliban’s religious totalitarianism. … I will accept this award on behalf of all the American men and women soldiers who have gone on repeated humanitarian rescue missions after earthquakes and floods from the mountains of Pakistan to the coasts of Indonesia. … Members of the Nobel committee, I accept this award on behalf of all these American men and women soldiers, past and present, because I know—and want you to know—that there is no peace without peacekeepers.”
The Nobel Peace Prize gives President Obama an opportunity to turn a new leaf both at home and abroad. I hope he takes advantage of the opportunity. I hope he becomes a statesman who does not accept credit when he doesn’t deserve it, who will accept the blame when he deserves it, and who will not blame every problem on someone else. In other words, I hope President Obama will quit acting like the politician that he is.
Posts
