by Peter Latona

Created on: April 16, 2009

American Politics: Over Promise Then Under Deliver

I spent 27 years in sales and marketing and during that time I participated in many new product launches. Bringing a new product to market can be very exciting, challenging and difficult. The greatest difficulty is often that senior management has already stamped their approval, so any failures must be due to execution and effort. As a veteran of these launches, I can give you the sure fire formula for failure: over promise then under deliver.

Over promise and then under deliver; the basic building block of how our politicians get elected. Candidates who run for office give speeches, write platforms, make promises and have debates with other candidates about who is best suited to make decisions for us. They promise to implement everything popular and throw out everything unpopular. Opinion polls constantly measure the preferences of potential voters and their messages are tailored to get these votes. Promise what you need to get elected and count on the public's short memory once you do.

Let's pretend that this newly elected official really does want to deliver on promises more than the care about the next election. I personally believe this to be unlikely, but shame on me for skepticism. This official, whether it is the Mayor, Governor, Congressperson, Senator or President (any and all elected officials) are immediately confronted with the established way of doing things. Party lines become clear. You had better not rock the boat. Be a team player and do what you are told. If Mr. Smith came to Washington today, he would be eaten!

Most candidates know they will not keep all the promises made during a campaign. They consciously over promised knowing they would under deliver, but they also know they have no choice. It is what the public demands. Unfortunately, they seem to be right on this account. The public is hungry for promises. The public is hungry for someone to give them something they feel they need. The public is hungry for instant gratification. The public craves easy way outs.

Why do we citizens continually place our bets on promises rather than character? We allow our politicians to treat us like children. We gladly give them responsibility to fix all these messes because we don't want to fix it our self. If they fail, we can skin them alive and elect someone else. We need to scrutinize this process and ask our self a critical question: Is it working?

As I write this, our nation and the world, is in an

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