Our political Quote of the Day comes via Morning Joe from the host of the same name Joe Scarborough who notes the differences between Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann. Mediaite has this quote where Scarborough notes how Bachmann has upped her game since hiring veteran GOP consultant Ed Rollins:
“When she doesn’t have the trainer in the corner she swings wildly, like Mike Tyson in later years. But with the right team and with her talent, she’s going to give Mitt Romney a run for his money.”
And on Palin?
He thought Palin “obviously can’t love what’s happening with Michele Bachmann.” Yet if Palin surrounded herself with professional handlers, like Bachmann did, “to stop her from doing self-destructive things” then Scarborough thought Palin could have been serious too. Instead, Scarborough believes the Palin and Bachmann paths are different as Palin continues to ignore the advice of even people like Roger Ailes, because “she doesn’t listen to people. Michele Bachmann does.”
It isn’t just in politics.
In so many businesses it boils down to making contact with people who can help you fill in the gaps, seeking their advice and trying to follow it. It doesn’t mean following all of it.
But he or she who simply decides to do their own thing can face the ecstasy of great victories (born partially of taking advice) or the agony of great defeats (for not listening to others who offer paths to improvement).
And it just isn’t advice.
A key part of what is unfolding is that Bachmann is trying to keep her existing constituency and appeal to some others to expand her base. Palin only talks, Tweets and writes for her existing base — Which does not even include all Republicans these days — and with Bachmann’s raised profile, may not include all of her past base.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.