The ability to own and own up to a mistake.
It doesn’t matter if he or she is a Republican or a Democrat, a conservative or a Republican. I want someone who understands that not just leadership but adulthood is an exercise in personal accountability.
Grown-ups take responsibility for both their actions and their decisions. They do so not just because it is the right thing to do, but also because they understand that acknowledging both misjudgments and failures inspires trust.
If we’re willing to say we’re sorry—and mean it—when we screw up or something goes wrong, then people are more likely to have faith in us when we say something good is about to happen.
A large part of the reason most of America finds it impossible to trust anything President Donald Trump says is that he never accepts responsibility for anything that didn’t work the way he wanted it to or said it would. On his watch, whenever there’s a misstep or a mishap, it’s always someone else’s fault.
Following the horrific shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, D.C., the president did what he always does when something bad happens when he’s in charge.
Rather than trying to find out what went wrong so he can help fix it, he looks for someone else to blame.
In this case, he lashed out at former President Joe Biden for granting the accused shooter, an Afghan national, asylum in the United States.
The problem with that assertion is the alleged murderer was granted asylum this past April when Trump himself was president.
When the facts became clear, the president didn’t apologize. He didn’t say he misspoke. He didn’t even say, “oops.”
No, he just went back to finding somewhere else to point his finger. During his presidency, unlike Harry Truman’s, the buck always stops somewhere else.
Then he wonders why his critics don’t take him seriously or give him credit for any good things he’s accomplished.
He’s not alone in this.
Here in Indiana, our attorney general, Todd Rokita, wasted several years and lord knows how many taxpayer dollars by refusing to accept responsibility for a misjudgment he made.
When an Indiana doctor performed a legal abortion in 2022 for a 10-year-old Ohio girl who had been raped, Rokita couldn’t wait to rush before the cameras at Fox News to malign the doctor and her motives. When the facts demonstrated just how mistaken the Indiana attorney general was and even Fox was backing away from what he’d said, Rokita insisted on doubling down.
The result was two negotiated settlements to disciplinary actions that ended up before the Indiana Supreme Court. Both settlements required Rokita to say he had conducted himself in ways he could not defend.
While he was trying to defend himself, though, he hired outside counsel, including one from Washington, D.C., and paid them with taxpayer dollars, the top limit of which was capped at a bargain-basement price of $20 million.
All because Rokita couldn’t bring himself to say, “I’m sorry” or even “my bad.”
Contrast this with the way former Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels handled a misstatement late in his second term. He called people who disagreed with him on an issue “bellyachers.”
But Daniels quickly realized his mistake.
And accepted responsibility for it.
He issued a public letter of apology. In that letter, he didn’t say those who disagreed with him misinterpreted him or were wrong to take offense.
No, he said he made a mistake.
Nor was this out of character for Daniels.
A few years later, when a statement that largely was a clumsy formulation he’d made as president of Purdue University inspired a backlash, once again he didn’t equivocate or engage in finger-pointing.
He apologized—genuinely and graciously.
Over the years, there have been people who have wondered why my assessment of Mitch Daniels has been generous even though he and I disagree on many issues—and some of our differences are profound.
The answer can be found in the way he conducts himself when he makes a mistake.
He doesn’t pout, throw a temper tantrum or find a corner in which to hide.
He takes responsibility for his actions and his decisions.
Like a grown-up.
Right now, we need grown-ups to lead us.
