When The Best Isn’t Good Enough

Sunday, May 24, 2009

This is not about politics; it’s about a back-handed compliment, and a warning to be on guard.

I speak in front of an audience often enough, and a regular attendee comes up to me afterwards, smiles, shakes my hand, and says “Good on ya, Chris. Ya did the best you could”.

I used to accept it as a compliment; “Gee I’m that good; I’m at the peak of my career”.

Then I used to see it in a negative way “I did alright under the circumstances; I’m not to be blamed for the many failures”.

Nowadays I’ve mellowed out, and I know it’s just Joe’s way of letting me know, by his consistency in remarks like his consistency in attendance, that he is consistently pleased with my results.

So my heart fluttered when I read in a CNN article that Judy Bagley thinks “ … [the] President is doing the very best that he can and … “.

Perhaps she is trying to tell us something, that she knows someone who could do a much better job of being President.

Or perhaps she is just not thinking clearly.

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