It was clear to me quite early on Election Night that Nate Silver’s reputation was well-deserved, and Barack Obama was going to be the next President of the United States. As blue states were called quickly for Obama and it took quite some time to call red states for McCain, the result was even more clear.
I’m incredibly happy and proud for the United States to have the new leadership that we will soon have. It’s going to be an incredibly challenging time, and the next four years will not be easy for Obama or the country. But I feel that we have a wise, capable and visionary leader.
But I wanted to take some time to reflect on some themes around Barack Obama and his campaign. Fred Wilson posted his list of what he believes the country can expect from an Obama administration:
- A world class management team
- Honesty
- A steady hand
- Diplomacy
- Fairness
- Leadership
There’s a reason that “A world class management team” is at the top of the list, and it’s closely tied to “Leadership.” It’s clear from articles like “Near-Flawless Run is Credited in Victory” that Obama built a solid team. Not only that, but he had the confidence to push out a tremendous amount of responsibility to his organization. From a military outlook, it was an excellent example of what is called “maneuver warfare.” But there’s a great example of his management and leadership styles colliding in this video of his talk to his Chicago campaign headquarters just after securing the Democratic nomination. I encourage you to take 10–15 minutes to observe what Barack Obama is like as a leader:
Obama is clearly a charismatic leader. Just take a look at this incredible collection of photographs from the Boston Globe. And because I think they’re both still so meaningful, check out his New Hampshire concession speech and the video that was made from it. Even in defeat he lifted people up and inspired them.
Finally, I’d like to remind everyone that elections matter. I recently created a prediction market on Hubdub for something that I think will become very critical quite soon: Supreme Court nominations. I encourage you to register on Hubdub and predict for yourself!
How many US Supreme Court Justices will retire by the end of 2009?
Jed Christiansen 