Standup Chameleons

   Government is about doing something. Politics is about getting elected. -- Pug Mahoney

   Perception becomes reality. -- Dinty Ramble.

   We're not selling bread, we're selling packaging. -- Marketing executive.

   A similar strategy applies to politics, which means that candidates are standup chameleons -- they vary their appearance according to the background. It's no surprise, then, that candidates say one thing in Des Moines and another in Philadelphia.
   Leading business schools teach that corporate leaders become whatever is necessary to make a company profitable. But it's questionable that what works well for one firm will necessarily work for others. Logic 101 calls this the Fallacy of Composition, that the attributes of one are the same for all. Another fallacy is known as a non sequitur -- it does not follow that what works in business will necessarily work in government.
   Statistically, it can be shown that what works for some in a sampling will very likely work for 87.5 percent of the entire population. However, this is only a probability, not a guarantee. There is still the 12.5 percent for whom it does not work -- the "outliers" on the famous bell-shaped curve beloved of statisticians and teachers.
   So figure the odds. And remember that in politics and government, as well as in business or life in general, there are only possibilities and probabilities of success. No guarantees.
   That said, there are some who like being outliers. We are always "outside the box."