The Political Power of Making Friends

Sometimes your political fortunes come down to simply whether or not people like you. It's networking. It's taking the time to get to know folks. Here's what I'm talking about. I got this quote from Hotline's On-Call blog:

Congressional Quarterly's Craig Crawford: "This president has oddly, and this is one of the strangest things about this president, I've thought all along, that how he has just not really shown much interest at building personal relationships on Capitol Hill with his own party members. And that has led to a lot of these problems like we saw today, where they bolt, they buck on him. And that's something that I don't think he can change now, it's too late" ("Countdown," MSNBC, 9/14).

This reminds me of a study I saw yesterday in Reason magazine, which states that social drinkers earn more money than non-drinkers:

"Social drinking builds social capital," said Stringham, an economics professor at San Jose State University. "Social drinkers are networking, building relationships, and adding contacts to their Blackberries that result in bigger paychecks."

Note: I am not suggesting the president should go back to drinking. But I am suggesting that building relationships is vital to your success. Sometimes that happens at a bar -- and sometimes that happens on a softball field. I think it's the same wherever you work. It pays to make friends with the people you count on. So, wanna' grab a bite to eat tonight?