President Bush's Oprah Appearance

Again, not to get political, but this just happens to be a good example.


I just saw former President Bush's appearance on Oprah yesterday. While I'm not a big daytime (nor night time) tv watcher, I couldn't help but pay attention as I was eating dinner.

One of the things that struck me was how good of a person he really seems to be, largely because of what I often refer to as someone's 'character'. Character as I describe it is when someone has conviction in what they are doing, and does what they believe in, and does what they say they will, never allowing popular opinion to blow you off course, no matter what others may think.


It was obvious during the interview, and by looking at his presidency, that he is a man of character. He could have done a lot of things differently and been more popular, yet he stuck to what he believed in the face of adversity, and public criticism.

As a result his popularity diminished, but you can tell he feels good about holding his ground about his core values and what he believes.


I'd much rather follow a man who tells you what he believes and lets you know where he is going, and does what he says, even if it is opposite of what I believe, than a man who is only in it for popularity. Popularity holds no substance, is fleeting, and eventually means nothing.


By contrast, if you look at the current administration, who campaigned on getting the troops out of Iraq, closing Guantanamo Bay, and has done neither. Sure it was popular and useful to get elected, but how does it look now, knowing the person making those promises didn't keep them? 


I'm not making a political example here, it's just a good, current example of the difference in character. I know we can find other poor examples of both political parties and I'm not saying one is better than the other. I'm just getting to the important point that it is much better to be unpopular and have great character, than it is to be popular and have a poor character.


In the long run, you will eventually be judged, based on your character.