Donald Trump is a forgetful guy. I can relate.
I’m always leaving my glasses in odd places. I have to think a little harder to remember names I’ve known pretty much forever.
My President is in his 70s now, and I’m close behind. The old joke is that when memory fades, we can save money on books. We can read the same mysteries over again and still be surprised by the ending.
In my case, lets update that to include videos from old television shows. I’ve been watching some programs from The West Wing. Remember that?
In one episode, a shooting nearly takes away some favorite characters. We watch scenes from their past as we wait to see whether they will survive. One character is an important advisor to the President: Toby Ziegler. We’re taken back to his experience as a minor political operative. He describes his success rate to a young lady he meets in a bar. She asks how many campaigns he has won.
Including city council, two Congressional races, a Senate race, a Gubernatorial campaign, and a national campaign…
He has to think for a moment.
…None.
None of them?
You gotta be impressed with my consistency.
He is questioned by an angry campaign official who is about to get him fired.
Do you enjoy losing?
Not that much, no. But then I haven’t had much to compare it to so…
He’s about to be fired because he gave the candidate, the candidate who would later become the President, a piece of simple advice. He is not fired after all, and that disastrous advice turns out to be an important reason the candidate goes on to win.
Toby’s perfect record of losing is broken.
I can’t say I learned much from that show, except there can be hope. I did hear a formula that I learned as a kid. When I have followed it, the most important memory issues have lessened, and sometimes even disappeared. I recommend it to my President now.
Continue reading “A Memory Trick for My President That Will Solve the Perjury Trap”