Political Chat At Interview Chatter: WHO Will You Vote For?

We have 7 days until we go to the polls and my biggest concern is that many people have done little to no research on either of the two candidates. Obama and McCain are the only two people we can select as the next President of the United States. What have you done as a hiring manager to determine which candidate is the best person for the job as Commander-in-Chief?

This weekend I took the time to watch an old black and white movie, 12 Angry Men with Henry Fonda and Jack Glugman. This is an old movie about a group of men, selected as jurors. The movie is about the deliberation to determine whether the young man on trial was guilty or not guilty. If he was convicted he would be charged with murder in the first degree and would be sentenced to death. As the deliberations began, the initial vote to convict was 11 to 1. Eleven men were for convicting him and one was against it, (Henry Fonda’s character). Why did Henry Fonda’s character go against the tide of angry men in the jury room? Because the others wanted to quickly settle the issue of guilt or innocence and go home without asking any questions and witouth discussing any of the evidence. By the time Henry Fonda was done explaining why he was the only holdout - he was able to convince a few people that they did not have enough information to make a clear decision of guilt or innocence of the defendant.

On the surface, you may think that my movie selection this weekend has no relevancy to the upcoming election. I beg to differ. As I watched the movie I began to see parallels with the upcoming election. So many people want to blame President Bush for all of the woes we are experiencing in our cornor of the world - in the U.S. By no means do I want to imply that President Bush doesn’t have some culpabilty for where we are as a nation, however, there are others on the landscape involved with the decisions that have led to our current “state of the union”.

The movie 12 Angry Men, made me think about how many people seemingly have superficial reasons for wanting to vote for a particular candidate, however, not a lot of substance. For many people, race is the primary reason they want to vote for one candidate over another. Others connect one candidate to Bush and as a result, that is their reason for voting for or against him. But, I wonder how many of you have actually taken some time to do personal research on these candidates. To determine for yourself what these men actually believe and whether they will be best for this country.

It is not about the race or gender of the candidate. It is also not about the running mate, though I do believe that we should consider the running mate, if for no other reason than to have some level of comfort with their ability to lead this country. I don’t need to list the issues this country is facing. Each of us have us as citizens have our personal concerns and convictions about what is important to us.

As Election Day approaches I want to recommend that you take some time to review the record of each candidate, what their convictions are, what their voting records are and what you hear them saying about how they will run this country. Don’t let the media be your sole resource for information on these candidates. The internet is full of accurate and inaccurate information. Do your homework before you go into the voting booth next Tuesday. If you can’t articulate why you are voting for a particular candidate, then you have work to do.

Image Credit: Ontheissues.org

Tags: Obama, McCain, Interview Chatter, 12 Angry Men, Commander-in-Chief, Vote, Presidential Election, Race, Gender, On the Issues, State of the Union, US, Election, Hiring Manager, Candidate

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