Notes on Boldness - With Love to Mitch Daniels.

My life is not without problems. I cannot sleep, I go out to get smokes, and I wind up thinking about Mitch Daniels. Something on BBC radio brought this to mind and I worked it out as I drove.

Mitch Daniels talks about being bold, pulling Indiana into the Twenty-first Century. His boldest ideas all seem to revolve about selling state assets on terms that end long after his term, if not his life span. Yes, that is bold. But, I keep thinking, being bold does not also mean it is not stupid. I sorted out in my mind some bold but stupid things and some similar bold things but smart things.

• Operation Barbarossa (No, not the Willie Nelson movie) - where Hitler invades the USSR. Bold but stupid.
• Operation Overlord - bold but smart (If you do not know why this was bold and risky, you need to read some WW2 history books).
  

• The US builds the atom bomb - bold but smart and highly speculative.
• Iran talks about building a nuclear bomb - bold but dumb on so many levels.
  

• Investing in dot.coms in 2000 - bold but dumb as in unrealistically speculative (you can shift the date around, if you like but remember to read the next one)
• Investing in Google - bold but smart.
  

• Building the Erie Canal - bold but smart.
• Building the Whitewater Canal - bold but dumb - it bankrupted a certain state that ignored the rise of the railroad.

Bold is good but bold and smart is even better. Wish we could say that our state executive was both bold and smart.