Two Views on a National Leadership Style - Male and Female

Here are excerpts from two articles, which contrast the leadership styles of President Bush and the Clinton's--in terms of male and female qualities. Which is preferable and when?

First, President Bush....

Man Overboard, By Ruth Marcus, WashingtonPost.com, Tuesday, March 21, 2006; A17

I have a new theory about what's behind everything that's wrong with the Bush administration: manliness.

"Manliness" is the unapologetic title of a new book by Harvey C. Mansfield, a conservative professor of government at Harvard University.... Mansfield's thesis is that manliness, which he sums up as "confidence in the face of risk," is a misunderstood and unappreciated attribute.

Manliness, he writes, "seeks and welcomes drama and prefers times of war, conflict, and risk." It entails assertiveness, even stubbornness, and craves power and action. It explains why men, naturally inclined to assert that "our policy, our party, our regime is superior," dominate in the political sphere.

..."The problem of manliness is not that it does not exist," Mansfield concludes. "It does exist, but it is unemployed." Well, um, excuse me, but I think -- it's just my opinion, now, maybe you disagree, and I'm sure we could work it out -- Mansfield has it exactly backward. Manliness does exist. The problem is that it's overemployed -- nowhere more than in this administration.

...The undisputed manliness of the Bush White House stands in contrast to its predecessors and wannabes. If Republicans are the Daddy Party and Democrats the Mommy Party, the Clinton White House often operated like Mansfield's vision of an estrogen-fueled kaffeeklatsch: indecisive and undisciplined. (Okay, there were some unfortunate, testosterone-filled moments, too.)

...But the manliness of the Bush White House has a darker side that has proved more curse than advantage. The prime example is the war in Iraq....

...Mansfield writes that he wants to "convince skeptical readers -- above all, educated women" -- that "irrational manliness deserves to be endorsed by reason." Sorry, professor: You lose. What this country could use is a little less manliness -- and a little more of what you would describe as womanly qualities: restraint, introspection, a desire for consensus, maybe even a touch of self-doubt.

But that's just my view.

Hmmm, womanly qualities include restraint and self-doubt??? This from a woman? Maybe she should have applied some restraint and self-doubt before she wrote that.

Okay, now for the Clinton's....

I'm boss, Hil Tells Bill; By Kenneth R. Bazinet, Daily News Washington Bureau, Monday, March 20th, 2006

After being surprised by her husband's role in the Dubai ports deal, Sen. Hillary Clinton has insisted that Bill Clinton give her "final say" over what he says and does, well-placed sources said.

..."He knows it's Hillary's time now," said an adviser close to both Clintons who expects to play a key role in her likely 2008 presidential campaign.

Hillary Clinton's handlers are keeping a close rein on the former President's schedule to try to prevent another embarrassing screwup like their competing roles in the Dubai ports deal.

..."Hillary has final say," said the adviser, and the ex-President's staff has been warned not to do or say anything without running it by the senator's handlers.

"That was true in the White House during the [2000] Senate campaign," recalled another longtime aide who stayed close to the ex-President after he left office. "If he said the sky was blue and she said the sky was purple, then the sky was purple."

...Bill Clinton jokingly admits he's a liability. "It's fun to be able to say what you want, and I do that, but I do try to avoid doing anything that complicates Hillary's life," he says in a now-routine line in his public remarks. ........

Yeah, Bill, you wimp. You watch what you say, not because you don't want to complicate Hillary's life, but, because you don't want to complicate yours--not that I blame you, especially if I had to share a house with her...but, let's hope it's never the White House, again.

Well, in my view, if the first writer worries about the testosterone level in the Bush White House, then she will have a real shock coming if Hillary Clinton gets elected. On the qualities of a government being "male of female," in times of war and crisis I'll take someone who will kick some tails and take names later. But, I want the male qualities that will solve problems rather than qualities that are only interested in domination and holding power...which seem the way that they are expressed by the Clinton's.