Shot in the Dark

Leading From The Rear

Governor Walz was a National Guard noncommissioned officer.

As such, it’s not unreasonable to believe he knows one of the key principles of leadership – never ask those you’re leading to do something you’re not willing to do yourself.

I thought about that when I read this…

…the latest in an eight month series of such platitudes.

Is it plausible that someone presumably promoted by the Army for demonstrating some leadership skill actually believes that someone with a government income and benefits chanting platitudes like “we’re all in this together” to people who are losing, have lost or will lose everything is sound leadership?

Is he unaware?

Or given the Twin Cities’ obsequious media, does he just know it doesn’t matter?

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Mitch Berg

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14 responses to “Leading From The Rear”

  1. Joe Doakes Avatar
    Joe Doakes

    It’s too bad the Governor has no power to relieve the burden, no ability to soften the blow, no authority to modify or even rescind the regulations. Covid is a force of nature and there’s nothing anybody can do about it, least of all a helpless bureaucrat who’s just trying to cope. Hey, we’re all in this together. We’re all victims here.

  2. Maximum Overlord Avatar
    Maximum Overlord

    Walz fails the leadership test in the areas of strategic thinking, communications, and persuasion.
    Everything Walz has done to guide MN through the pandemic has been tactical, not strategic. He has admitted that his policies are reactions, not actions. The virus is in the driver’s seat, not Walz.
    His communications have been awful. He lectures his fellow citizens like naughty school children. His mandates have been arbitrary, confusing, and sometimes ridiculous. Walz insulting words re: the MN national guard were icing on the cake.
    All of these failures have led to the current leadership crisis in MN. People do not trust that Walz approach to the pandemic is the best approach.

  3. Chaosfish Avatar
    Chaosfish

    Don’t forget that Gov Walz/ IB was in training to become the Command Sergent Major of the MN National Guard when He ditched that training and (I believe) 2 years of his voluntary post 9-11 re-enlistment to be able to strike while the iron was hot and run for Congress in the first district.
    So it’s not that he hasn’t had the training , it’s it’s just that he has the personal and political greed to do what he needs to advance his career , his policies and his party

  4. justplainangry Avatar
    justplainangry

    Or given the Twin Cities’ obsequious media, does he just know it doesn’t matter?

    Nail head, meet hummer. And sickle.

    Let’s parse the impassionate plea, shall we?

    This is a critical time for our bars, restaurants, and the people whose livelihoods depend on them.

    Bars and restaurants are physical spaces, with leases and property taxes and kitchen areas subject to regulations and government overreach. Liquor licenses that owners have to mortgage their first-borne for. And of course they employ people who rely on that income for roof over their head and money for discretionary spending. Oh, and let’s not forget taxes! So when these establishments are closed, NONE of this is happening. Government does not get its fair share, and people go out of business and employees end up on the dole, while government is not collecting any revenue.

    So, it is your civic and moral duty to Ordering online gift cards or grabbing takeout is one way you can complement our efforts to provide relief.

    First – online gift cards? To a failing establishment where you cannot go and spend your money? What moron could even think… oh, never mind. And if lockdowns are forever, because Gov sez so, and the takeout is the only option going forward, why the need for physical space? liquor license? biz property tax? employees? etc. etc.? Why not run the take out biz from your home kitchen? You know, work from home like the rest of us?

    Well, because then, EVERYONE working from home will have to pay a share of the missing revenue from brick and mortar stores and licensure. EVERYONE’s taxes will go up to cover the shortfall, regardless whether you are running a take out business because you had to shut down your corner diner, or had been licking envelopes for a living for the last 20 years. You think you taxes are high now? Remember, the goal is for EVERYONE to be miserable, because only THEN will you be happy. And Gov knows that better then most. Intended consequences.

  5. shakingmyhead Avatar
    shakingmyhead

    Walz was never in an actual leadership position. His rise through the ranks was likely due to one big factor – he was a teacher. He had months in the summer where he could attend professional development schools. See, in the Army, you could be the greatest leader ever. But, if you don’t attend schools, you can’t get promoted. And, this is not to say those schools are bad. It’s just that if you have a full time job and family, it’s tough to take time away from that for your part-time job.

    Was meeting a friend earlier in the week. He is also a retired Command Sgt Maj – just like Timmy. Except this guys schools were Q Course, Ranger and Airborne, and a couple tours of Iraq. Real leaders hate Timmy (said in South Park voice for best effects). They hate him because he left his troops.

  6. bikebubba Avatar
    bikebubba

    For the thousandth time, if Gov. Klink wanted to do something substantive about the mess here, he could have used empty hospitals and other buildings (e.g. empty Kmart and Sears stores) to set up temporary COVID wards separate from the main hospitals. There isn’t a whole lot that can be done for viral illness except for administering medications and (as a last resort) ventilators. Get sufferers out of the main nursing homes and hospitals and into actual quarantines.

  7. jdm Avatar
    jdm

    bike, even worse, there were weeks, months when Wally the Governor could’ve prepared for this tsunami of cases. In fact, that was the justification for the first go round of lockdowns, yes?

  8. Joe Doakes Avatar
    Joe Doakes

    Fairview designated Bethesda Hospital in St. Paul as their Covid center to handle all the highly contageous and deadly patients.

    There weren’t any. So they shut it down. It’s being leased to Ramsey County to house homeless people for the next 18 months.

    And the 75,000 square foot refrigerated warehouse purchased to store all the corpses . . . still sits, empty. Waiting for The Surge. It’s coming. Any day now. You’ll see. Aaaany day now.

  9. Mitch Berg Avatar
    Mitch Berg

    And the 75,000 square foot refrigerated warehouse purchased to store all the corpses . . . still sits, empty.

    They let John Thompson out of it on November 4.

  10. bosshoss429 Avatar
    bosshoss429

    If Timmy the Toad really meant his own spew that “we’re all in this together”, he, and the rest of the feckless Democrats in the legislature, would have voluntarily suspended their pay. But, no! God forbid that they follow the example of the POTUS, who actually accomplished many things and work without pay. He could also have delayed the raises that all of the non essential gubmint workers got. Screw all of them!

  11. Scott Hughes Avatar
    Scott Hughes

    “Or given the Twin Cities’ obsequious media, does he just know it doesn’t matter?”

    He went out of his way to keep serious questions from being asked at his daily back patting sessions with the main purveyor of BS Jan Malcolm to the extent that they denied access to Scott Johnson of PL.

    The long winded, bloviating (insert profane adjective here) Walz has cost all of us immensely for his power grab and incompetence. As JPA said we’re all going to pay dearly for his “SCIENCE” experiment.

  12. golfdoc50 Avatar
    golfdoc50

    Walz retired rather than go to Iraq. Semi-thread jack. The Minnesota- Wisconsin football game was canceled because of Covid. Was the game canceled during the Spanish Flu, which killed way more people? No.

  13. Pete Strunk Avatar
    Pete Strunk

    This is the man who sat back while leftist terrorists burned his states largest cities down, after the feral black population had stolen everything that wasn’t nailed down.

    When he was finally stirred to action, his feckless leadership lead to the shaming of the state’s National Guard.

    He’s given up trying to control any determined chaos agents. It’s a lot easier marching lemmings around on the parade ground.

  14. bikebubba Avatar
    bikebubba

    And Walz–or perhaps local police forces motivated by the failure of Walz to act–have just stood by as a number of monuments, including one to Washington, were trashed. Not quite sure exactly what Washington did to deserve that, but perhaps the left has inserted something new into history again and acted on that.

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