Quick Musings

I have a few quick items:

- The first presidential debate is tomorrow night.  Audience estimates have been huge: some have estimated over 100 million viewers, which would be Super Bowl levels. I plan to watch this debate eating popcorn purchased from Candyland, a great downtown St. Paul establishment. I will put forward my reactions to the debate shortly after it occurs, but I thought I'd give a a few thoughts on how I think each candidate, Hillary and the Donald, want themselves to be seen as leaders by the electorate, not my own view of them.  A myopic opinion for sure, but this is based on my observations:

Hillary - Competent, experience leader in challenging times is what I think her campaign is presenting. Working in the policy realm over multiple decades in issues such as children's education ("It takes a village") to combating terror (in the room to see the assassination of Osama bin Laden), Hillary is well prepared for this job.  If you want a leader that can keep a steady hand on the wheel in stormy seas, Hillary is the one.

Donald - Someone who gets things done.  Having to take on a variety of situations in business, the Donald has generally succeeded in getting things to work out well for him.  He may not know all the variables going in, but he's able to decipher the information quickly and come out with the best possible solution.  As President, the Donald would not necessarily have a strong preference on how something gets done, but his success as a negotiator will allow him to get things done that will be beneficial for America.  He'll do this by have an initial position of what his desired end result, then taking in information from a variety of sources and negotiating a deal to get as close to that result as possible.  I recall taking a class in business school on negotiation, it's quite the skill to develop.  The Donald is confident his negotiation skills will get what he wants done.

So the key will be after the first debate, who will be able to project his/her wanted image the best to the electorate.  Stay tuned.

- Other piece of news is that I'll be in Toronto the second half of this week traveling with my mother.  I look forward to it.  I will give a report when I have a chance.