Why teams matter

Senator Obama is QUITE RIGHTLY taking time off to spend with his ailing grandmother - a woman with whom he remains very close, a woman who raised him and gave him his values. (See article here)

So what does that mean for the campaign? Does this mean that the campaign should fold its hands and wait for him to come back? Absolutely not!

Senator Obama represents a change. He has built a well-oiled organization machinery built on change with many supporters of that change. He speaks passionately about what he will do for others and importantly, what others have to do for themselves. So, he is going to spend time with his grandmother:

• Does that change the message? No.
  

• Does that change the machinery? No.
  

• Does that make him have less supporters? No.
  

What should it do is make more people come out. Speak stronger, Speak lounder.

My father believes strongly in teamwork - everything was about the value of teams when I was growing up. He always taught me that when a man is down, the rest of the team must take up the slack. Well, Senator Obama is not down, but he does need to be absent from the campaign trail for a while. And to me that means that the rest of the team must step up. And this is not just because of his absence. It is precisely because that is the very premise of his campaign of change - that it is all of the people who have to do something to realize that change.

Allow Senator Obama this time. It speaks volume for his character. I'll take a President who values his family - who are people too - this much any day over one that values other "things" that really have no comparable value.

So the campaign must go on. And it must go on strategically. The team owes itself and its leader the very best it has got.