A political lesson

In 2008, Maureen Dowd, a writer for the New York Times, analyzed why Hillary Clinton lost out to Barack Obama in the democratic race for president.

Dowd wrote, "[Hillary Clinton] has ignored some truisms of politics that her husband understands well: Sunny beats gloomy. Consistency beats flipping. Bedazzling beats begrudging. Confidence beats whining." (NYTimes, 27 Feb 2008)

Whether Dowd's assessment of Hillary Clinton is accurate is debatable. But I was reminded of some composers I've met who have had enormous success: Paul Moravec and Chen Yi and Jennifer Higdon, for instance, truly follow this non-whining, confident way of life. It might seem hard to live every day this way, but composition careers are about more than composing; politics counts, too.