Charlie Black: Keys to His Success

It is rare to find the level of humility one discovers in Charlie, particularly among his peers. Charlie exemplifies Ronald Reagan’s belief that much can be accomplished in politics when people stop worrying about who gets the credit.

The ability to work with the other side of the aisle has been part of Charlie’s success.  “To be effective, to implement conservative political philosophy, you’ve got to work through the two-party system. If you’re going to be a leader in the Republican Party, you’re going to have to support non-conservative people and occasionally you’re going to have to compromise on an issue.”

Charlie believes in mentoring … He usually summarize it for young people in politics, that there are two essential rules: that your word is good and that you are loyal to your friends.  There are other things that they need to be taught, but if they get those two right, then that’s a pretty good path to character development.

He also believes we must pick people of good character for elective office or even for our government-related businesses. Sometimes somebody is very effective in politics whose character is marginal. We must still hold out for integrity. We need not and should not reward bad character in or around politics.