Cuban lacks presidential demeanor
Misguided Mavs’ owner should avoid running
The last thing America needs is another billionaire businessman-turned-reality TV star who thinks being president of the United States is an entry-level job.
That means you, Mark Cuban. The Mavericks owner is again floating the idea of running for president, this time in an interview Monday with the New York Daily News. Cuban said he hadn’t made up his mind or formed an exploratory committee and that it would take the “exact right set of circumstances” for him to run.
But he seems to think he could be a viable candidate. With no political experience, no specific platform or ideas — at least, none that he’s willing to share — and no previous efforts to contribute to the greater public good.
Which tells you pretty much everything about why he has no business running.
Cuban said he would run as an independent, criticizing the Democrat and Republican parties for getting too bogged down in trying to appeal to primary voters.
“It’s very difficult to show leadership in a situation like that because you can’t truly lead if you have to find an equilibrium between being a true leader for the people of your country versus getting elected in your primary,” Cuban said. “None of those things are conducive to out and out leading the country.”
He also said people will gravitate to a candidate with “a message,” implying no one else has one.
“You have to show people how they can have an upside and how problems are solvable, but you can’t just say ‘the government will figure it out,’ ” Cuban said. “You’ve got to get right to the heart of the matter and get to the details first. Sort of like a business plan. That way every voter can see them.”
All of this is fine, if you’re running a business where you’re the one calling the shots. Or you’re a would-be despot certain he has all of the answers.
But that isn’t what being president is. The president of the United States has to represent all of the people and work with Congress to craft policies that are good for the country as a whole, not one particular party or segment of the population.
At least, that’s how it’s supposed to work.
As critical as Cuban has been of President Donald Trump in the past, his interview with the Daily News showed he’s not all that different.
Running a business doesn’t mean you can run the country. Starring on a popular TV show isn’t an actual job qualification. There’s a difference between the ego needed to run for national office and the arrogance that makes you think you should.
Cuban also still thinks Trump got elected because he was an “outsider,” glossing over the virulent racism and bigotry that fueled his election and continues to galvanize a large segment of the Republican base. Anyone so naive, or willfully ignorant, not to recognize that should not be entrusted with a country whose intrinsic flaws have been allowed to fester for far too long.
Not that his attitude should come as a surprise.
When a rampant culture of sexual harassment and workplace misconduct was found in the Mavericks’ front office last fall, Cuban was sincere in his remorse, saying he’d had no idea.
“I’m just sorry I didn’t recognize it,” he told ESPN’s Rachel Nichols, who pointed out that none of the team’s toplevel executives at the time were women and the Mavericks’ business office alone was 70 percent male.
“In hindsight, it was staring me right in the face and I missed it.”
That’s called privilege, the blissful ignorance that comes from thinking your achievements, success and wealth are all the result of your own doing. It overlooks the inherent advantages one’s been given and inflates the sense that someone is smarter, or more capable, than they really are.
Sound familiar?
Cuban is, without a doubt, brilliant. He’s created a number of successful companies and shown a knack for knowing how things will unfold long before they do. But all that means is that he’s a good businessman, and it takes a heck of a lot more than that to be president.
A good one, at least.
Being president isn’t a vanity project, and America doesn’t need anyone else who’s going to treat it like one.