It's Ethics, Stupid!
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Recent Barack Obama Commentaries

Featured image for ““It Is Mine Alone””
“It Is Mine Alone”
I’ve been looking back at history for moments when leadership wasn’t just a word, it was a responsibility carried with humility and moral strength. It’s easy to talk about leadership when the outcome is victory. The harder truth—the one that defines real character—is how a leader responds when the stakes are high, and the outcome is uncertain. Dwight D. Eisenhower...
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August 1, 2025
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Featured image for “Four More Presidents Who Took an Ethical Stand”
Four More Presidents Who Took an Ethical Stand
  What separates a good leader from a great one isn’t intelligence, charm, or even experience. It’s character—specifically, the willingness to do the right thing when it’s difficult, unpopular, or politically damaging. We’ve seen this quality in several U.S. presidents, but four in particular stand out—not for partisan wins, but for the ethical backbone they demonstrated when it mattered most....
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June 2, 2025
  • Character
  • Courage
  • Ethics
  • humor
  • Politics
Featured image for “From the Vault”
From the Vault
Back on it, September 8, 2020! While I’m on vacation, I thought I would go to the vault for commentaries from times past. It’s Ethics, Stupid began in 2008, so I’ll start there. The Janitor – March 2008: Watching George Clooney in Michael Clayton, I quickly picked-up on the ethical aspects common in several of his films. January 20,  » Read...
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July 27, 2020
  • Ethics

Read Some of the Most Recent Articles
The Latest... And Often Greatest
When the Line No Longer Holds
There are moments when events reveal more than they intend. What unfolded Saturday at the Washington Hilton was not simply an isolated act. It was...
  • Accountability
  • Extremism
  • Journalism
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How High Can Leadership Rise?
What is power accountable to when it no longer accepts limits? We have seen what happens when power turns inward—when it begins to believe it...
  • Uncategorized
The Burden of Command
What does leadership require when decisions send others into harm’s way, and uncertainty is shared not just by those in command, but by the nation...
  • Accountability
  • Character
  • Courage
  • History
  • Integrity
  • Responsibility
“If I wasn’t in the White House, Leo wouldn’t be in the Vatican”
Question: How low can Donald Trump go?Answer: Low enough to attack the head of the Catholic Church and, by extension, 1.4 billion Catholics. His latest...
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We
What will define us at 250 years—not our disagreements, but what we are willing to believe about one another, and about the truth itself? As...
  • Civic Responsibility
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  • Responsibility
An Easter Message That Matters
On Thursday, three days before Easter Sunday, Pope Leo XIV delivered a message that went straight to the point. “Leadership is not measured by authority,...
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