Another good column today from Daniel Henninger in the Wall Street Journal:
It works like this: If you occupy a position of leadership or responsibility in public or private life, your thought process in the face of disaster now runs rationally in this order: 1) Am I going to get blamed for this? 2) Is there anything we can do to help? 3) Will we get tagged if something goes wrong with that effort?
The answer of course to (1) and (3) is that you will get blamed for days on end, no matter what the facts are. If under some ancient compulsion of honor you admit some culpability, the plaintiffs lawyers will pillage your assets, and a political-media bonfire will burn down what's left of your reputation. Why go there? In the pin-the-tale-on-the-donkey world we occupy now, the political and legal price of taking ownership is too high.
He's writing about President Obama and the oil spill, but he could just as easily be writing about Lloyd Blankfein and Goldman Sachs.
Also well worth reading is today's Wall Street Journal editorial on the Florida boat registration tax.
