Somebody once told me in business that when you're going to negotiate a business deal, you stake out your position and stand on it! Don't go in there and ask what they want. Say, 'Here's what I want!' You've got a Republican Party under Gingrich and Tom DeLay that says, 'Here's what I want.' Then you've got the Democrats over here saying, 'Yeah, ah, yeah, we could, some of what you say makes pretty good sense.' The result is the American people don't see the full spectrum. Before the 2002 election there were a lot of Democratic politicians apparently who said, 'I don't have the information. I can't battle with the president on the information. He's got the intelligence. What if there is a smoking gun in there? I can't fight the president in my congressional district.' What we've got to do is stake out our position. For instance on tax reform, stop saying you agree with simplification of the tax code. : We stand for progressive taxation. We're proud of it. If you make more, you should pay more, period!

Politics·Leadership·Strategy·Communication·Negotiation