Politics is like baseball. If your team loses, you remember who struck out in the ninth inning, not who struck out in the fourth.
— Howard Fineman, on McCain and blame assignation for the 2008 Wall Street meltdown, in Bailout ushers in the era of Obama, MSNBC, 29 September 2008.
I mention this not to speak about the financial crisis, but rather to remind folks not to manage like sentiment in politics and baseball. When you’re toting up the contributions of your staff, look at how they’ve all done, over time. Not just at who’s in the doghouse (or the spotlight) at the moment you’re doing the math.
