True Leadership: For many years I have enjoyed the study of leadership. I have read dozens of great books by everyone from Maxwell to Guiliani to Kiyosaki. One of the things that I learned from reading from Guiliani is that leadership stays the course when you know you are right, but you seek the counsel of others (hopefully wiser than you) when making difficult decisions. This is a very difficult balance, one that I don't always get correct. I admire those leaders who stand up for the right thing, even when it flies in the face of what is popular.

Amoung those that I have recently found to show strong leadership are (in no particular order):

Fred Thompson. He recently commented on a "nay" vote for a Senate bill in which he was the single descending vote. The vote (exact bill escapes me) was to protect children. In my mind it was something like a federal "Amber" law. He voted no, not because he disagreed with the bill - he totally was in favor of it. He voted no because he didn't think that it was the government's business to pass a bill that the states had already passed. He saw this as nothing more than bureaucracy. Good move Fred.

John Edwards: He has taken a lot of flack from other bloggers for taking $55,000 for a speech about helping the poor. I think that even I attacked him at the time. But, he has shown the heart of his beliefs, and I don't think that he should be faulted for that. You know where Edwards stands on things.

Bill Proenza, Director of the National Hurricane Center: Bill gets my vote because he didn't resign under pressure from his subordinates. Apparently he said something that they didn't like and sent around a petition to get him removed. Bill stuck to his guns. [Note, Bill backed down under pressure of his subordinates and resigned today, so never mind.]

Al Gore!!!: I have bashed on poor Al for a while, but he has a couple of terrific leadership qualities that I admire. First, how tough is it to have your son arrested on the night before one of your biggest events. But, Al prevailed and he pulled off the event (although the reviews of the actual event were terrible). But, Al is the truest capitalist that I know. Since leaving the White House he has increased his networth from an estimate $2m to well over $100m, all in just 7 years. That is totally amazing! I can think of no other individual who has made that much money without taking a company public. He has correctly identified a market that is willing to pay for his speeches and he has capitalized on that enormously. There were jokes about him buying a Shoney's franchise when he left Washington, and now he charters private jets every day flying all over the world. What a turn around!

Dick Cheney: Dick wins the award for creative ways to keep his job. When challenged to show his logs as to who visited his office, he claims that he is no longer a part of the Executive branch and doesn't have to abide by those laws. Steve Jobs needs to try that the next time the SEC looks at his back dating of stock. So he keeps his job by totally denying that he has the job to begin with. When Bush was asked about this he just replied "What's a Vice President?" This is akin to "You can't fire me, I quit!", except in this case he didn't really quit, he just says that he is totally above the law and doesn't have to do anything that anyone says.