Character or Stubborness?

Bill Oncken (author of the single best book on business--and life--management I've ever read Managing Management Time) said, "What we describe as stubborness in children, we attribute to strength of character in adults." There is a time and a place for sticking to your guns, for standing alone, for refusing to be defeated by refused to admit defeat.

When Bear Bryant was coaching his second year at Texas A&M, his team trailed Rice by a score of 12-0 late in the fourth quarter. Led by Gene Stallings and other survivors of the previous year's training camp/death march at Junction, the team rallied to score 21 points in the final three minutes and win the game. Stallings said after the game that it never occured to him that the team would lose. That's character.

The President has character. He's stood against the tides for pretty much his entire tenure in office. He's faced a hostile press, a threatening world, and a divided nation. He has stood for his principles, and I admire him for that. But with Harriet Miers, he has crossed from character into pure, unmitigated stubbornness. He made a mistake. And the longer it takes him to acknowledge that and fix it, the worse things are going to get, both for him and for his party.