Monthly Archives: July 2004

Is Bill Clinton a Good Politician?

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Is he? So many people say Bill Clinton is the greatest modern politician. Really?? Great politicians win. Their team wins more than loses. Great politicians have coattails. Great politicians win their ideas and increase their party’s spoils.

When Clinton assumed the presidency in 1993 the Democrats controlled the executive branch, the senate, the house, the majority of the governorships, the majority of the state legislatures, and a majority of all elected officials nationwide.

When Clinton left office in 2001 the democrats had lost control of everything. They lost the presidency, the senate, the house, a majority of the governorships, a majority of the state legislatures, and a majority of all elected officials nationwide. In fact, Clinton presided over a dominant resurgence of the Republican Party (which is now in its tenth year).

Turns out Clinton wasn’t such a good politician after all. Based on his win-loss record, he’s the worst thing that happened to the Democratic Party since the Civil War.

Book: The Anatomy of Buzz: How to Create Word-Of-Mouth Marketing

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Review of The Anatomy of Buzz: How to Create Word-Of-Mouth Marketing by Emanuel Rosen

like many books before this, Rosen writes on how to understand the power of world-of-mouth marketing. the book is a good overviewer but worth skipping if you have read a few of these types of books.

the boof was given to me by Mel Ochoa, one of my former coworkers at BridgePath.

The Tech Lobby, Calling Again — New York Times

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In today’s Business > Your Money > The Tech Lobby, Calling Again” href=”http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/25/business/yourmoney/25lob.html?pagewanted=print&position=”>New York Times, Gary Rivlin writes a piece on “The Tech Lobby, Calling Again”

interesting article about the evolving clout of Silicon Valley. Worth reading. Good article. Quotes me in the very last paragraph.

Big Time and Little Time

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There is a difference between big time and little time. A big little difference.

Big time is what happened last year … or ten years ago … or two hundred years ago. Understanding big time means you have a really good comprehension of dates relative to one another. You know the year that a song came out because you reference it to a year of your life. You know exactly how long you spent in your last four jobs. And you remember the start dates of each job. That’s big time.

Big time is understanding your life events and the world events in sequence.

Some people are really good at understanding big time, some are not. Some of the smartest people I know can’t grasp big time.

Little time is something entirely different. Little time means you’re never late, because you can factor in all the tiny commute steps. Like the understanding that if you have to be somewhere at 3:30 you need to leave by 3:05 – because though the drive will only take 15 minutes max, it usually takes 5 minutes to find parking and another five minutes to get out your door and say goodbye to the dog.

That’s little time.

Comprehension of little time means understanding how long things actually take. Do you know exactly how long that check-out line was? Do you know how long it will take you to get through airport security? Do you really know the difference between 5 minutes and 15 minutes? That’s little time.

People who are very logistically oriented understand little time. Military soldiers always understand little time. So do football players.

My experience is that there is no parallel between people who understand big time or little time. Because you understand one does not make you any more likely to understand the other.

I am always puzzled by those that do not appreciate big time and little time. And it is so easy to learn….

Books: Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t

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Amazon.com: Books: Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t by Jim Collins

You hear a lot about these so called savior books. Books that “change paradigms” or “thought lead.” I never think much about these books … but Good to Great is the real deal.

This book on tape was given to me by Diana Westnedge — it made getting into the car so much more enticing. The cogent overview and the chock-full of examples and data was very informative. I was hooked.

The mission was to find companies that for 15 years had an average stock performance that lagged the market and then, after a transition, had at least 15 years of beating the market by at least 3 times. In the United States, there are only 11 companies that fit this criteria. Good to Great details the similarities between these 11 companies and gives an overview of how these transitions happened from a “good” company to a “great” company.

Summation: this book is certainly worth a read (or a listen to)…

Books: From Bush to Bush: The Lazlo Toth Letters

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Amazon.com: Books: From Bush to Bush: The Lazlo Toth Letters by Don Novello

This is the third Lazlo letters — which has been going on for well over 30 years. Novello (better known as Father Guido Sarducci) is absolutely hilarious. This book was given to me by my college friend Mark Schlosberg … who is the person that introduced me to Lazlo ten years ago.

If you are looking for a good laugh and a light read, I highly suggest this book. Stand up! Hilarious …

Transforming Al Hurra into C-SPAN

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Steve Cook at the Council on Foreign Relations is one of the brightest minds on the Middle East. I rely on him for insights into the region — especially when I travel there.

In today’s New York Times, Steve writes an interesting opinion Opinion > Op-Ed Contributor: Hearts, Minds and Hearings” href=”http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/06/opinion/06COOK.html?pagewanted=print&position=”>that Al Hurra should be transformed to Arab-world C-SPAN.

Al Hurra is the U.S.-backed television station who’s goal is to promote free speech and openness in the Arab world.

Summation: Read Steve Cook’s piece.