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LoomisBoy

The personal journal of technology journalist and conference speaker Randall S. Newton.

View Randall Newton's profile on LinkedIn

Friday, September 12, 2008

Newton's Law of Hotel Connectivity

I'm in another major city in another large downtown hotel for another
day of meetings. The details aren't important. I've reached a tipping
point in recognizing a fundamental truth about business travel, one I
will arrogantly describe as a law:

Newton's Law of Hotel Connectivity: The larger the hotel, the slower
the Internet connection.

Tuesday, September 09, 2008

The Party of Lawyers

I have noticed that the professional training one gets -- or the summary of life experience that replaces training for a specific profession -- strongly affects a person's outlook.

Take a look at the professional training of the men and women on the presidential tickets, both Democratic and Republican, of the last several years and a trend emerges. To make it easy, I have put one particular profession in bold type.

2008:
(D) Obama -- Lawyer
(D) Biden -- Lawyer
(R) McCain -- Military Leadership
(R) Palin -- Communications

2004:
(D) Kerry -- Lawyer
(D) Edwards -- Lawyer
(R) Bush -- Business Administration
(R) Cheney -- Political Science

2000:
(D) Gore -- Journalism; law school (did not graduate)
(D) Lieberman -- Lawyer
(R) See Bush/Cheney above

1996:
(D) Clinton -- Lawyer
(D) Gore -- See above
(R) Dole -- Lawyer
(R) Kemp -- Physical Education & Professional Athletics

1992:
(D) See Clinton/Gore above
(R) G.H.W. Bush -- Economics & Business Management
(R) Quayle -- Political Science and Lawyer

1988:
(D) Dukakis -- Lawyer
(D) Bentsen -- Lawyer
(R) See Bush/Qualye above

1984:
(D) Mondale -- Lawyer
(D) Ferraro -- Lawyer
(R) Reagan -- Economics
(R) GHW Bush -- see above

1980:
(D) Carter -- Engineering & Military Leadership
(D) See Mondale above
(R) See Reagan/Bush above

1976:
(R) Ford -- Economics, Political Science, Lawyer
(R) See Dole above

1972:
(D) McGovern -- Theology, History
(D) Shriver -- Lawyer
(R) Nixon -- Lawyer
(R) Agnew -- Lawyer

There is a clear trend here. The Democrats are the party of lawyers, the Republicans the party of every other career. If I had stopped before the Nixon era, the difference would be even more profound.

Lawyers are trained to be advocates, and to take a us-versus-them view. They see the answer to every problem in the law.

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