The question is asked, is he prepared to lead? It is an important and relevant question.
But you cannot assess the adequacy of preparation without first deciding the more important questions of destination and purpose. Where do you want to go, and why? For it is the destination and the reason for the trip that determines the adequacy of preparation! It does no good to be the best prepared artic trekker, in the middle of the Gobi dessert.
It is clear that you can’t measure the adequacy of preparation, if you have no idea of the destination, or if you have no idea of why you want to get there.
America today stands on the edge of a new wilderness of exploding technological changes, rapidly increasing speed of information exchange, increasingly complex international financial, energy and trade interdependency, growing economic insecurity both domestically and internationally, as well as vast challenges to human rights and the rule of law, at home and abroad. We are teetering on the edge of global environmental disaster, the weakening of international institutions and relationships, and fast spreading international pandemics. We face the paradoxical maze of third world poverty and cultural tribalism, co-existing side-by-side with emerging biotechnology, high tech information exchange and rapidly expanding international markets and monetary systems.
Our new wilderness is uncharted, and one where many of the challenges are both unknown and unknowable. And those we know all too well, require clear analysis, innovative and creative solutions and the strategic application of diplomacy, as much or more so than the projection of national military power. And our path through this complex forest of interrelationships, rapidly changing conditions and complex circumstances traverses the mine fields of war, of ideas as well as military might, economic renewal and industrial and technological innovation. Our goal is not merely the exploration of new locations, but the creative innovation and application of new technologies, new global systems and institutions, as well as the rebuilding of both global and domestic infrastructures. To put it bluntly, America faces challenges we will have to think and innovate our way through. We need a leader who is prepared to find new answers to old problems, not one who wants to apply old answers to new problems.
What preparation is required to lead America out of the pit of economic recession, across the chasm of damaged international relationships, up the steep slopes of the restoration of the global environment? What preparation is best to lead us back to the respect for law and each other? To solve the new and perilous challenges that lie ahead?
The answer is not much different that America has given throughout our history. We need leaders of vision, courage, persistence, endurance and even more importantly, the ability to reason his way through the complexities of intricate and complicated problems that have intricate relationships and yet not be mislead by false paths and false choices. And just as America has done in the past, we need to choose our best and most visionary thinker. We need the leader who understands the challenges and who has the ability to craft new solutions to new problems, and innovative and creative approaches to old intractable ones.
We need someone, first and foremost, who understands the problems we face. We need a thinker and a leader with vision, and one who can inspire the nation with that vision. We need a leader who understands and can utilize the tools we have at hand, and who can innovate new tools when those are inadequate for the new challenges ahead.
Today we need a leader who understands that the first thing you need to do to get out of the pit we’ve dug, is to put down the shovel. We need the leader who understands the problem, not one who seeks to relive history. We need the pioneer, the pathfinder, not the village elder.
The Republicans are arguing that Sen. McCain is more prepared to lead. And if the destination is the to solutions to the problems of the 20th Century, they may be right. Or if the destination is off of the cliff of recession, income inequality, or American unilateralism, I would have to agree that he is in fact the leader who is most prepared.
How can someone who cannot use a personal computer lead America to and through the next wave of technological change? How can he lead us in technology intense innovative solutions in the areas of biotech, or alternative energy tech, or new information technologies? How can someone who admittedly has little understanding of economics, lead us in resolving problems with new global financial infrastructures and market innovations?
And most of all, how can someone who fails to understand that the ability to inspire others to their greatest efforts is essential to achieving the most difficult of journeys, seek to lead us on the most difficult journeys of this new century.