In case you missed it, here’s the link to my interview on NPR’s “Talk of the Nation” this afternoon. My part starts 33:45 into it.
I felt like it went well. If y’all disagree, I’m sure you’ll let me know…
The NPR folks said it went well, and want to have me back, which is nice. Finally, I’ve broken my string of getting bumped by bigger news on NPR. Even when Michele Norris came to my office and interviewed me personally (and SAID it went well, although maybe she was just being nice), I got bumped.
So it was good to make in on the air this time, and I look forward to opportunities to do it again. I love doing radio. TV’s fun, too, but you have to keep thinking about sitting up straight and such. With radio, you just shut your eyes, open your mouth and TALK, and keep talking. Which is just brain candy to me.
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Well done, sir. Showed ’em that all of us aren’t Jake Knotts or Mark Sanford….
Brad, Great Job!
Brad, you did a great job. Great interview.
well done, Brad. Though the host seemed to vacillate between pronouncing your name “Worthen” and “Warthen.” I still think, however, that all that national attention flowing Ms. Haley’s way is not the unqualified plus that you seem to think. When Sarah Palin ran for governor in Alaska, she was not really getting national attention and scrutiny to that level. Consequently she was able to run the campaign basically on a few key issues and areas where she was comfortable. Had she gotten in the glare of the national limelight as she did later (to decidedly mixed effect) her shallowness and unpreparedness for serious high office would have been exposed considerably earlier.
Haley will face greater scrutiny at an earlier stage of her political career than Palin. That has its disadvantages as well as advantages. Now, I actually think Ms. Haley is a little more intelligent than Palin, but if she’s smart she’ll turn down all national interview requests except from Faux News. I’d even avoid Rush and Beck, lest they get her to nod approvingly or say “uh-huh” to some outrageous statement that Sheheen could use to pin the “extremist” label on her.
Any guesses as to whether Obama will campaign for Sheheen? Haley will probably get a number of big name politicians to come in and campaign with her. Who can Sheheen call in? I can’t think of a single high ranking Democrat who wouldn’t do more harm than good here.
Haley is quite intelligent. She seems to lack the kind of depth a liberal arts education or law school might impart. Engineers and accountants often fail to see the nuance and uncertainty in non-mathematically determined situations.
Very good Philip. I think you are onto something with you analysis.
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I think that the Democratic ticket has a very good opportunity to place one more Democratic Governor.
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South Carolina would be well served by electing the candidate on the Democratic ticket, and South Carolina deserves to have a Governor who wishes to look out for the well being of the states residents and the interests of the state.
@Kathryn
“Engineers and accountants often fail to see the nuance and uncertainty in non-mathematically determined situations.”
And lawyers and liberal arts types often fail to see the reality of factual evidence that doesn’t match their theoretical view of the world.
Our broken government is full of lawyers. Let’s try a new approach.
@Doug
Stephen Colbert
Doug, you are SUCH an S.
And that’s a reference to our previous discussion about Myers-Briggs. I wasn’t calling Doug a name.
While as a P I’ve had some horrific and ugly arguments with Js, the most intractable divide is between Ns and Ss. It’s SO hard for them to agree, because they simply do not take in and process information the same way. Ss find Ns’ leaps to conclusions completely invalid, even immoral. It disgusts them. While Ns have little patience for the more methodical ways of the S.
That was really the biggest thing I learned from my experience with Myers-Briggs. It helped me understand why there were certain people I was always ticking off. The more inspired I was (in my opinion) in what I said and did, the more disgusted they seemed to get. That’s because they were extremely S, while I was almost off the chart N.
For me, it’s Fs and Ts. Ts think everything should be 100% rational–like Mr. Spock, while us Fs are like Bones McCoy–we see that feelings exist to help us. I have a problem specifically with ETs. Introverted Ts are less sure, since introversion has two faces, unlike the WYSIWYG extraverts. Introverts are one way to those close to them and the other to those outside the tent.
Ns also despair of getting Ss to see the additional dimensions, and Js get impatient with drag-it-all out Ps. Introversion and extraversion don’t get played out as much in this setting.
The authors of the test and others point out that we can all benefit from developing our less-preferred modes. Law school helped me develop my rational side. Making mistakes taught me to slow down and check my work. Flights of unchecked theories made me appreciate empiricism…
I’m guessing N’s make a lot more big mistakes than S’s do. Like N-ovista… a classic N solution.
N’s appear to reach a conclusion and then filter out all evidence that doesn’t support the conclusion until it is absolutely, positively undeniable that the conclusion is wrong.
Hey, we need N’s. I’m sure they are responsible for all sorts of cool things. We just don’t need them handling money.
Doug, again the outsider endorsement thing can backfire. DeMint will help Haley, but who else can she bring in that doesn’t also carry big negatives? Palin helps her with her base, but she doesn’t need any more help there. She needs help to draw the center. Palin also carries big negatives, even in SC.
Don’t forget, it’s the year of anti-incumbency. If Haley parades around a lot of tired GOP officeholders then she risks being seen as too much the insider.
M-I-C…K-E-Y….M-O-U-S-E
Welcome to the Jr. Pschiatric Ward… grab your letter and take a seat. This discussion reminds me of Arlo Guthrie’s Alice’s Restaurant song.
E-I-E-I-O
LOL
Our government is also full of men. So?
It’s the ideas and implementation that matter, not the personalities ad qualifications–I’d probably rather see political science PhDs….
Doug, actually it’s not quite right to say “N’s appear to reach a conclusion and then filter out all evidence that doesn’t support the conclusion until it is absolutely, positively undeniable that the conclusion is wrong.” Not if the Ns are also Ps. If I were an N and a J, I probably wouldn’t even take comments on the blog, because I would be uninterested in what other people think (especial since I’m also an I). But as a J, I’m always interested in taking in new data, and evaluating conclusions in light of it.
I know you don’t think I change my mind, but I do. About Mark Sanford. About Nikki Haley. About Jim Hodges. More abstract ideas are a little harder to change than are judgments about politicians. Ideas are, were and will be. But I change my mind on those, too. My biggest change ever is that when I was younger I thought in very democratic terms — the agenda for a legislative body, for instance, should arise directly from the people. But as I studied the way deliberation works over the years, I became more convinced that the republican system (that is, representative democracy) is better. And that’s counterintuitive for a lot of people. It took a lot of experience for me to reach that conclusion.
@Phillip
I was going to suggest Scott Brown, but if you think South Carolinians are close-minded when it comes to religion, it’s probably even worse when it comes to Yankees.
Here’s some Republican names that would probably help solidify her with the Republican crowd — which let’s remember is all she really needs to convince to win:
– Jeb Bush (his brother still has a lot of fans here and he doesn’t have the baggage that W has)
– Bobby Jindahl (would give her the “hey, look, a brown person can be a Republican” street cred)
– Governor Perry from Texas (a state with a booming economy)
– Mike Huckabee (he supported Bauer though) would shore up the Christian Right.
– Steve Forbes (my personal all time favorite President candidate) for the wonks
Who could Sheheen bring in with anything approaching those five?
Maybe the Democrats could bring in Biden instead of Obama. But other than that, who else doesn’t arrive with a ton of baggage in this state? Obama’s approval rating is at an all time low and it’s unlikely to improve as long as the oil keeps flowing into the Gulf and unemployment remains above 9%.
My only hope is that Haley resists the urge to have any of the tired old dogs from the Republican party like Thompson, McCain, Giuliani, or Cheney (God help us!).
I’m an NJ, and I’d have comments.
Don’t forget that the Myers-Briggs rankings are a continuum, not a discrete matrix.
@Doug
You say “N’s appear to reach a conclusion and then filter out all evidence that doesn’t support the conclusion until it is absolutely, positively undeniable that the conclusion is wrong.”
I think that would be an unhealthy N. The people that study these things make all sorts gradations and how well developed your other areas are and how well you use them to compensate, etc. make a huge difference. There is a lot of variability but your description is more the exception than the rule.
you also say “Hey, we need N’s. I’m sure they are responsible for all sorts of cool things. We just don’t need them handling money.”
Not sure what you mean by that, but I would counter by hypothesizing that Sanford’s S nature contributed to his disastrous approach to the budget vetoes. He thought it was cut and dried – that he could cut this and that all over the place without it really affecting other things or seriously impacting the people of this state. I think an N would have a better appreciation for the interconnectedness and the ripple effects and effects on the people of the state of the things he was cutting. I guess it could also be that Sanford knew but didn’t care about all the implications of his actions…my sense is that maybe it was a little of both – I think his grasp of the implications of his actions was weak and that an N who intuitively grasped the deeper workings of the system he was tinkering with would be more aware.
I am INFP. I am the only N in my immediate family, so learning about meyers briggs explained alot to me – I’m pretty aware of the N-S difference.
Doug: Jindal? no, will freak out racist GOPers who will be convinced Haley is planning a Indian takeover or something.
Jeb? Maybe. Huckabee, he’d be good. Forbes? Not politically astute to bring in a name associated with wealth and Wall Street insider-ness. Gov.Perry? He’s against the Arizona immigration law, at least for Texas, so his cred is suspect for that wing, though might help staunch the already-started centrist flow towards Sheheen. Romney definitely not, because that is a reminder that Obamacare=Romneycare.
Everybody’s damaged goods these days.
Well Doug, it sounds as if you are suggesting that some new light needs to brought into the political arena. Let them be educated, let them care about the people who helped bring them to a place of influence, and when it is time for them to go, may the people usher in new again.
Yes, I believe that seems to be way it keeps working.