One other truth is that you need to stay humble. You may be on the top of the heap today but it doesn't take much to quickly bring you to the bottom tomorrow.
Both of these truths were on full display on separate nights this week at the Academy Awards presentation Sunday night and in President Trump's speech to a Joint Session of Congress last night.
The Oscar ceremony was marred when the wrong envelope was given to Warren Beatty who was presenting the Best Picture award along with Faye Dunaway. As a result, LaLa Land was announced to be the winner as the Best Picture of the year when Moonlight was the actual Academy Award winner.
The mistake seems to have been made when Brian Cullinan, the PricewatershouseCoopers accountant charged with tabulating the results, provided a duplicate envelope to Beatty for the Best Actress award that was given minutes before to Emma Stone, rather than the Best Picture envelope.
Cullinan is no lowly bean counter. He is the managing partner of the Southern California/Nevada/Arizona practice of PWC with almost 30 years of experience with the firm. He is also on the US Board of PWC.
Here was a man at the top of his profession. The partner in charge of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The man in charge of counting the ballots for the Oscars. One of only two human beings on earth (the other being his fellow partner Martha Ruiz) who knew the Oscar winners before they were announced at the ceremony.
All of it blew up for him in a matter of seconds. He and Ruiz and have been terminated from ever working for the Academy again. PWC remains the accountant for the Academy for now but that is under review.
Indeed, it was a very bad night for Cullinan.
How did it happen? Cullinan was human.
He appears to have been star-struck. He seems to have been more concerned with snapping pictures of celebrities back stage than focusing on his duties. He was distracted and did not pay attention to the job at hand.
The brain is not good at multi-tasking. We are all guilty of it trying to do it. It does not work very well. Brian Cullinan will pay a big price for thinking he had it all under control.
Here is a picture of Oscar award winner Emma Stone that Cullinan must have taken in the minutes he should have been making sure he was handing Beatty the correct envelope. It was posted to his Twitter account at 9:05 pm local time.
Ironically, this was the the exact time (9:05pm) that Warren Beatty was opening the wrong envelope on stage. You can see that in this close up of Beatty as he pulled the slip of paper out of the envelope. The closeup below is from the ABC feed that was shown the next morning on Good Morning America. The envelope reads "Actress In A Leading Role."
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| Credit: ABC Good Morning America |
A very bad night.
The Democrats also had a very bad night last night during President Trump's speech to a Joint Session of Congress.
They have been reeling ever since another bad night (November 8, 2016) and they appear totally unable to come to grips with the reality of their situation.
Of course, eight years ago they thought they were riding high and could do anything they wanted. They made it a habit of telling anyone and everyone at that time, "Elections have consequences. Get over it."
They seem to be having trouble getting over it. It seems to be even harder for them to "get over it" since they were so sure that Hillary would utterly destroy Donald Trump.
In fact, last night it appeared that they are having difficulty even recognizing that they are still Americans. It was a difficult to find any applause from any Democrat on anything that Trump had to say.
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| Nancy Pelosi having a bad night last night |
I can understand why they might not be jumping up and applauding a call for the repeal of Obamacare or Trump's "Make America Great Again" campaign slogan but couldn't they get behind calls for a middle class tax cut, supporting our police, honoring a fallen Navy Seal, improved infrastructure spending or plans to create more American jobs? Those don't seem to be Democrat or Republican, or conservative or liberal issues, just American issues.
The Democrats were sitting on their hands even as President Trump made a clear attempt to reach across the aisle as he appealed to those things we share as Americans.
"We all bleed the same blood. We all salute the same flag. And we are all made by the same God."
Perhaps it was the reference to God. Or the flag. I don't think anyone could disagree with the fact that we bleed the same blood.
All in all, it was a very bad night for Democrats who just have no idea of how to deal with a Trump presidency. They seem to be so blinded by rage and revenge that they seem to have lost touch with reality. They seem to no longer comprehend anything beyond politics.
On the other side of the ledger (or lectern as it were), last night was a very, very good night for President Donald Trump. Many of his critics in the media even had to admit that Trump looked very much the part of President of the United States last night.
More importantly for Trump, his message was able to be viewed and heard directly by the American people without the typical mainstream media or social media filter that is added.
Powerline had a very good summary in this regard in their post about last night's speech.
Anyone who saw the speech will have a difficult time denying in good faith that the speech was presidential. And by giving such a presidential speech, Trump has probably made it difficult for his opponents, including those in the media, to sustain the hysteria that has threatened to engulf his presidency before it could really get started.
Those who watched the speech have to ask themselves whether they believe the media or their own eyes and ears. For President Trump, that’s a very good night’s work.Two bad nights. One good night.
Stay humble, President Trump. It can and will get worse. However, stay the course. You are on the right track.
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