To a degree, and within reason, I agree with Bill Clinton's "hopeful & completely convinced" comment

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Visited one current and two potential clients today.

Client #1 (potential new client): "We're not able to do this right now. We're definitely going to want to do it in the next few months. But we're going through some transitions so it won't be for a few months."

Client #2 (current client, discussing potential new business): "My husband and I have to discuss this. People have stopped coming in, and the people who were placing orders over the phone have stopped calling."

Client #3 (potential new client): "I have no income to pay for this now."

I also would like President Obama to "end by saying that he is hopeful and completely convinced we're gonna come through this," because we will...one way or another, sooner or later, so I agree with Big Dog. BUT...I also agree with his comments earlier in the interview, in which he said "I like the fact that he didn't come in and give us a bunch of happy talk. I'm glad he shot straight with us."

There's a very, very fine line between shooting straight and happy talk. In the current business climate, on a day like the one I had today, there's probably nothing President Obama could say to me...or former President Clinton for that matter...that would make it better, because neither one of them were driving around Silicon Valley with me today making sales calls. It was a hard day to walk away "completely convinced" of anything other than I spent face time with three clients who aren't buying.

The only thing I have...and my President can't give it to me, I can only give it to myself...is hope that tomorrow will be better. As Bruce Hornsby sang in "Jacob's Ladder"...All I want from tomorrow is to get it better than today, step by step, rung by rung...

I understand that communication and leadership are an integral part of a President's job...God knows, we've seen what the last 8 years were like without it.

:patriot:

OK, enough. Here's the article:

Bill Clinton: Obama Should Sound More Hopeful
Says President Should Voice Economic Optimism, Paint GOP as the Party of 'No'
By TAHMAN BRADLEY
Feb. 19, 2009



Regarding Obama's bleak warnings that "the economy could get worse before it gets better," and that the economic stimulus program is only the beginning of the end of the economic crisis, Clinton said, "I like the fact that he didn't come in and give us a bunch of happy talk. I'm glad he shot straight with us."

But he added, "I just want the American people to know that he's confident that we are gonna get out of this and he feels good about the long run."

Clinton thinks Obama should talk to the public in greater depth about the economy.

"I like trying to educate the American people about the dimensions and scope of this economic crisis," Clinton said. "I just would like him to end by saying that he is hopeful and completely convinced we're gonna come through this."

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/President44/story?id=6916695&page=1

[jobycom]

1. Clinton and Obama have very different styles.

Clinton was always very specific about his plans, and always wanted to explain to people exactly what was happening, and exactly what he was doing. Some people hated that over-explanation, but I always liked it.

Obama is less specific, more interested in convincing people he knows what he's doing than in explaining what he's doing. He's better at explaining the problem, whereas Clinton was better at explaining the solution. Some people connect better with Obama because of this, since they feel he understands them better, and understands their complaints and problems better. I like hearing the solutions more than the problems, so it's taken me longer to warm to Obama. Just different styles.

Not that Clinton didn't explain the problems, too, and not that Obama doesn't explain the solutions. They just emphasize different aspects.

One thing Bill has never had to do before is stand on the sideline and cheerlead, so it may take him a bit to learn that role. He's used to offering his opinion whenever it's asked. Now he has to learn how to withhold it.

Just my random opinions. I've never learned to withhold mine, either. :)

[MarjorieG]

2. I think these problems are harder to wrap solutions around, uncharted, global waters.

Obama still needs to come and ask us for money, more about the banks. But I agree that he could explain more of where we are, and how interconnected-although he has said we are.