Poor Social Skills

I would make a poor politician.  I like my privacy, I don’t like to mingle with people I don’t know or share a common bond with, I can leave most organizational parties within a few minutes of arriving and I am terrible at small talk.  But I have to believe an effective politician is one who can build networks, communicate ideas, and when necessary socialize with both friends and opponents to find common ground for good legislation.

I find it amazing we have elected a President who does not believe it is necessary to associate with other politicians New York Times, "Bipartisan Agreement: Obama Isn’t Schmoozing".  This explains so much about why we see the President telling people what they need to do, not rolling up his sleeves to help make it happen. 

I don’t envy anyone who thinks they want to be President, and I doubt the job comes with an instruction manual, but if you want to say you are the leader of the nation, there has got to be something besides your inner circle of friends involved in the process.  As the article points out, President Jimmy Carter, felt himself an outsider and did not socialize enough when he was in office.  President Clinton, on the other hand had no problems with small group gatherings.  You can decide who was more effective, the one who lost his office because of runaway unemployment, high interest rates and failed military operations, or the one who served two terms with an adversarial Congress and managed to leave with a balanced budget?