Teachable Moments

Substituting “bully pulpit” for “teachable moment” would be a politically correct phrasing in Mickey’s eyes, I think.
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I noticed that Kaus is voting for Obama. But I haven’t seen a straight-ahead explanation of why he’s doing so…Mickey? Over to you.
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Ugh. There’s aren’t any actual live humans that want to read that, are there? “Playing word games” would be a much better title for his column than “Kausfiles.”

The whole ‘teachable moment’ thing could also be compared to the notion of a ‘bully pulpit.’

They called That One a socialist, too.

Are you kidding me? The Heritage Foundation has erected an entire shrine to Reagan’s teachings. You have to take your shoes off and bow your head whenever visiting the site, or the keyboard will shock you.

Something that intrigues me about Obama is that he seems fully interested in being a leader without looking on that as an opportunity to consolidate political power. I hope I’m right.
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The interview with Petraeus comes to mind. Aware that as CIC he would have authority over this person, but paying him the respect of engaging him intellectually on substance. Another teachable moment, and in this case principally for Petraeus.
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The change in Obama’s demeanor and confidence since the early debates, to a time when he knows he may become the president, is remarkable.
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By contrast, McCain has seldom behaved in a “presidential” manner in this campaign.

I haven’t read or thought of Kaus in years. My experience with kausfiles was that it was unreadable.
My only criteria was content and layout.

No one tells Mickey Kaus what to think. Not Obama. Not you, Klein. Not the stinkin’ fuzz. Ya hear me, coppers?! He’ll plug ya full a lead.

You know being a leader is all about “teachable moments.” You can only improve employee perfomance by doing so. If I remember the MSM was extremly positive about Obama’s speech on race.

It gave him credibility when most pols, would have done, like, nothing.

I’m not offended by Obama’s use of “teachable moment,” because I think Obama has exemplified his willingness not only to teach but be taught. And that’s what I find remarkable about him, and very much a leadership quality.
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When I was a student, the best classes were the ones in which professors prompted people to think through things… more thoroughly, more precisely, or from a different angle. They also encouraged and rewarded students who could do the same thing — create a teachable moment.
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When I was a high school teacher, I started the first day of ever class telling my students, “I may be your teacher, but I fully expect to learn as much from you as learn from me.”
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Now, having worked for three Fortune 500 companies, I find that without a doubt, the best managers and executives are those that create opportunities to both teach/lead and yes, to learn from their employees.
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I want Obama to do exactly the same thing — be open to listen and learn from a variety of perspectives, and yes, to have an adult dialogue with the American public and create many, many teachable moments.

I thought the same thing when I read Mickey’s post. I was even more surprised (given his nit-picking of all things Obama) that he publicly stated he was voting for Obama. I was less surprised to see that he couldn’t bring himself to divulge his reasons for doing so. As you say Joe, “Mickey, the ball’s in your court.”

Can I say that I’m in favor of someone who has lots of “teachable moments”? If nothing else, it proves that the POTUS has a grasp of the situation, or at least enough of one to reiterate it to others.

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JK: Mickey Kaus has me on his mind, lately..
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Beats that thing about goats that Kaus has. Maybe it’s the beard, Joe.
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…what’s the difference between teaching and selling? You’re playing word games, Mickey.
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I think Kaus is wrong with the bit about using something as a ‘teachable moment’ as being condescending, considering that many folks’ feelings about issues like race result from ignorance…But I don’t quite see where the charge of ‘word games’ fits, Joe. With selling, the customer doesn’t need to think, just buy…

Gah. Second line shouldn’t be in italics.

The whole concept of seeing voters as needing “teaching”–as opposed to persuading, or even selling– seems more than a bit condescending.
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Kaus’s argument would hold more weight if we hadn’t seen that 50% of Americans suffer from exceptionally poor judgement.

Um … maybe someone can tell my why teaching Americans a thing or two would be a bad thing.

We’re not all that bright when it comes to the rest of the world (or even different parts of our own country), the economy, personal finance, science, and a whole host of other topics.

Having a leader who’s not a complete dunce — and especially not one who sees willful ignorance as a positive character trait — and who will talk to us like adults would do a world of good.

I wish more in the MSM would point out McCain has a snowball’s chance in hell of achieving bipartisanship if he’s elected because of his namecalling.

How can he ask Dems to work with him and not get spit on after calling Pelosi and Reid “dangerous”? Doesn’t he realize he’s calling 36 million Americans “socialists” and promoters of “communism” when he and Palin distort Obama’s tax policies the way they do? We who voted for Obama and Hillary are not to happy to hear that kind of crap.

But, I’m with Joe. As a Hillary supporter I knew I would never vote for McCain because it was clear, from his economic advisers, he had no clue about the economy and what was needed to fix things. I found his obsession with earmarks annoying and petty. Plus, I hated how he was running on his biography and not solid policy proposals. To be honest that’s one reason I picked Hillary over Obama but Obama very quickly started adding meat to his rhetoric.

Does Mickey Kaus have a loyal readership? I found his stuff to be very inessential reading (back when i bothered to read it at all.)

As for teaching Americans, I would LOVE for a President to show up to the state of the union with a couple of simple charts: a pie chart showing what we spend the budget on, and a bar chart showing the difference between tax revenues and expenditures.

“So if we want to balance the budget, let’s look at how much of our pie chart is currently going to defense, how much goes to social security, etc.”

I’d guess that about 90% of Americans would learn something new from that.

offTopic: http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/10/mccain-miami-rally-getting-ugly-down.html

I hope our nation doesnt have a teachable moment in why it’s wrong to gin up votes based solely on fear, demonization and intolerance.

Theres a real fear of solcialism and communism among hispanic communities, given political events in central and south america in the past and present.

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onTopic I wouldnt mind a leader that teaches and informs us of, for example why the bailout bill needed to pass – instead of going back to thier consituents mails and phonecalls and says nope cant pass the bill, theyll fire me. Or nope cant pass the bill, cant explain it, dont understand it myself.

Perhaps we could use a leader with a head on him that could teach us what America is capable of, and how we can get there.

there is a miserable discrepancy in the abilities of these candidates, Im frankly surprised the polls arent more like 75-20.

my comment is in moderation – I misspelled socialism

Hasn’t anyone considered the possibility that Mickey Kaus is practically perfect in every way, and thus looks down upon us regular Americans who still have things to learn? (Like how one would adjust these new login names. I miss capital letters!)
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Also, it may just be possible that Mickey Kaus merely believes in his own infallibility and is projecting his own arrogance, per usual.

g_crush – I, too, find Kaus unreadable. But the goat thing kinda lost its sting in light of subsequent events.

Kaus is a hack. Joe, I am so glad you have seen the light of reality based reporting.

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letaaronbeaaron –
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1. go to http://wordpress.com/
2. click the ‘your dashboard’ link on the upper left
3. click the ‘profile’ link on the upper right
4. scroll down to the ‘name’ section.
5. enter the name you want to use in the ‘nickname’ section
6. scroll to the bottom of the page and click the ‘Update’ button
7. scroll up to the ‘name’ section and select your nickname from the ‘Display name publicly as’ drop-down box.
8. scroll to the bottom of the page and click the ‘Update’ button
9. log out of Swampland and log back in again.
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That should do it.

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billiecat: …the goat thing kinda lost its sting in light of subsequent events.
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Oh, but the point of the whole thing was:

..if you just operate from within an assumption of guilt it’s very hard for someone to prove his innocence but that’s why we . . . don’t operate with an assumption of guilt!

The whole thing about Kaus and the goats has never been disproven, has it? Plus, it’s funny as all get-out.

“It would have been nice if George W. Bush had taken the opportunity to do a little teaching about Islam and the Middle East region after September 11.”

He tried. He spoke about a crusade.

Gosh, a “conservative” who ridicules the opportunity for people to learn things. I’m shocked!

Is our journalists learning?

Poor Joe. You’re going to be so disappointed. Obama is what his record indicates he is. An ambitious politician who says what the audience in front of him wants to hear. If he’s going to “teach” us anything, it will be to never again believe the media hyped candidate who promises great things but hasn’t accomplished anything. Barack better concern himself with learning rather than teaching if he plans on being re-elected because the problems he’s likely to face will not be solved by standing in front of podium. What will he do when his agenda meets stiff opposition? Either he’ll fight or he’ll water down his agenda. His record does not inspire confidence. He promised a fight for FISA but he caved when the opposition pushed back. He promised a fight for NAFTA but he never really meant any of it. At least that’s what he told the Canadiens. He is not very good at protecting his agenda when the going gets tough. That’s the real “teachable moment”.

bbpdx – you must have loved Ross Perot

“It would have been nice if George W. Bush had taken the opportunity to do a little teaching about Islam and the Middle East region after September 11.”
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If he knew anything about it to start with. Anything true, for that matter.

As usual, thank you, Joe, for pointing out the hogwash that could very easily tip into perceived conventional wisdom. The idea that it’s presumptuous for the man we want to elect as leader of our country to believe he has something to offer the American people in terms of insight and education is faulty like San Andreas. I hope we learn a lot from Obama.

Your writing has been invaluable this election.

Thanks, g_crush. My apologies for going off-topic.
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Or as Mickey Kaus would say, “How dare you assume that I don’t know everything about everything?”

“He promised a fight for FISA but he caved when the opposition pushed back. He promised a fight for NAFTA but he never really meant any of it. At least that’s what he told the Canadiens. He is not very good at protecting his agenda when the going gets tough.”

His agenda was to be the first African-American to be elected president, in spite of Republicans, racists and other morons. Looks pretty tough and accomplished right about now.

Shep,

“His agenda was to be the first African-American to be elected president, in spite of Republicans, racists and other morons. Looks pretty tough and accomplished right about now.”

Is that really his agenda? That explains it then. His goal is simply to be elected and once elected, to do…what exactly? If and when he wins, which he almost surely will, is that the beginning, middle and end of his movement? Will Obama do anything at all to solve any of the problems this country faces? He won because Republicans have proven themselves incompetent at governing and because the media cheer-led him to victory just as they did George W Bush the last two election cycles. Meanwhile, the country faces some very serious problems that will not be solved by rhetoric devoid of action. He’ll have to do something if he wants to keep his teflon shield. Nevermind, he’s the first black president and that’s enough. He can run the country into the ground and usher in another decade of Republican misrule but he will still be a hero simply because he’s black. What exactly does that “teach” us about the nature of race in America at the beginning of the twenty-first century?

I try to be a good person, and kind. But I love anyone who rags on Mickey Kaus. That guy seems to be asking for abuse. He’s never happy. Never.