[OutsiderFan]

Tne other point about political will. Leaders lead. They assign importance to an objective and rally people to follow them. I had to do this in my own household. Any head of state has the same ability. They just have to have their priorities set to care about others under their watch.

OF, no, they don't all have that ability. History is replete with leaders who were unable to lead their own people in the direction that they desired. Consider France in 1940. Often times it isn't really the fault of the leader, but rather the led. FDR clearly knew that the USA needed to support the democracies against Hitler, but the isolationist sentiment prevented him from taking the country where we needed to go. Had Japan not solved his problem, God alone knows what would have happened. If you can do it, great, but it isn't a given by any means.

This is a similar dynamic to CEOs and coaches. It was established fact Stanford Football could never consistently challenge for conference crowns in 2005. There were too many hurdles to success. So you could never blame the coach. Then Harbaugh and Shaw arrived and effectively proved the reason Stanford couldn’t consistently win football games was because the coaches before them that oversaw losing weren’t capable of leading the program to victory. 

The FDR example is interesting, especially given the Plot Against America running on HBO now. There is of course the Affordable Care Act example as well. The Democratic Party, following 44th POTUS, willingly sacrificed a nearly impossible to achieve Senate majority and House control, to get more people health care coverage. Somehow 44 got elected again, but his party was crushed. I”m certain they went into it thinking there would be bi-partisan support on such a fundamental issue but when it didn’t materialize, they went forward anyway, bravely putting their heads on the chopping block to protect the American people. There are always exceptions (and more than we would want), but I’m certain most heads of state in history would act contrary to political expediency to protect their people when push comes to shove.

[OutsiderFan]

Tne other point about political will. Leaders lead. They assign importance to an objective and rally people to follow them. I had to do this in my own household. Any head of state has the same ability. They just have to have their priorities set to care about others under their watch.

OF, no, they don't all have that ability. History is replete with leaders who were unable to lead their own people in the direction that they desired. Consider France in 1940. Often times it isn't really the fault of the leader, but rather the led. FDR clearly knew that the USA needed to support the democracies against Hitler, but the isolationist sentiment prevented him from taking the country where we needed to go. Had Japan not solved his problem, God alone knows what would have happened. If you can do it, great, but it isn't a given by any means.

This is a similar dynamic to CEOs and coaches. It was established fact Stanford Football could never consistently challenge for conference crowns in 2005. There were too many hurdles to success. So you could never blame the coach. Then Harbaugh and Shaw arrived and effectively proved the reason Stanford couldn’t consistently win football games was because the coaches before them that oversaw losing weren’t capable of leading the program to victory. 

The FDR example is interesting, especially given the Plot Against America running on HBO now. There is of course the Affordable Care Act example as well. The Democratic Party, following 44th POTUS, willingly sacrificed a nearly impossible to achieve Senate majority and House control, to get more people health care coverage. Somehow 44 got elected again, but his party was crushed. I”m certain they went into it thinking there would be bi-partisan support on such a fundamental issue but when it didn’t materialize, they went forward anyway, bravely putting their heads on the chopping block to protect the American people. There are always exceptions (and more than we would want), but I’m certain most heads of state in history would act contrary to political expediency to protect their people when push comes to shove.