Top Ten: Most Corrupt Politicians

[casimendocina]

Originally Posted by ZenGum

There are times, though, when we need a strong leader to say something like "screw your poll results, screw your marginal electorates and swing states etc..., I'm in charge here and were doing [insert necessary but unpopular move here]!"

Alas, for someone to be able to say that, they'd need to have roughly absolute power, and we have an adage about that, too.

John Howard was the kind of leader that said and did that sort of thing. He was also completely deluded about how good his decisions were. I agree with your point Zen (and I know that you know this), but pigheadedness needs to be recognised for what it is-as does wisdom in the face of unpopularity.