Tools of the Month... Thomas Friedman, Random Marketing Exec

It's only halfway through September and I felt I should blog on this month's "tools." I'm pretty confident I won't find better candidates by the end of the month.

First is Thomas Friedman. Brilliant man, but he should never be involved in politics. His recent op-ed in the NYTimes, "Making America Stupid," attempts to make claims that the Republicans yelling "drill, baby, drill" was a mutually exclusive statement signifying that they do not intend to invest in alternative energy solutions.

"Why would Republicans, the party of business, want to focus our country on breathing life into a 19th-century technology — fossil fuels — rather than giving birth to a 21st-century technology — renewable energy?"

Big stretch, Tom. All you had to do was go to McCain's website and click on his positions on "energy" to read one of his major points:

Investing In Clean, Alternative Sources Of Energy
John McCain Believes That The U.S. Must Become A Leader In A New International Green Economy. Green jobs and green technology will be vital to our economic future. There is no reason that the U.S. should not be a leader in developing and deploying these new technologies...

So McCain is committed to the future of cleantech and creating change, Tom. I'm disappointed you deceived your readers by conveniently leaving out this public information.

"In order to disguise the fact that the core of his campaign is to continue the same Bush policies that have led 80 percent of the country to conclude we’re on the wrong track,..."

Wow, is that a Democratic Party talking point? Why even position this op-ed as a piece on energy? It's a "vote for Obama" piece, so you should have just came out and said it. This was a weak attempt to make a greater cause a personal political tool. So you're one of my "tools of the month," Tom.

My second tool was a marketing executive from a hardware company I met during an industry mixer. After an initial introduction, he goes into a long-winded description of his product and market. Thoroughly impressed with himself, he asked me, "Did you understand that?"

What kind of person asks if you understood his explanation, especially in a haughty voice? Were you trying to confuse me? Attempting to make your conversation unintelligible? Isn't the point of talking or networking to make a connection? Wow, what a tool.

I replied, "Yes, I understood that. I'm familiar with that market because..."

"Oh...," he said.

I don't know who is the bigger tool. This hardware marketing exec or Thomas Friedman.

Also one of my favorite entrepreneur bloggers, Tom Evslin, takes Thomas Friedman to task from a pure energy policy perspective, "Tom Friedman Being Stupid"