One of the true joys of my life is watching desperate staff while their thoroughly briefed leaders obliterate months or even years (or centuries…) of careful work. It reminds me of what feels like a former/different incarnation: You brief the guy in detail what to say, what not to say, and why. Then you watch in disbelief that same person forgetting everything on stage, rambling away for 50 minutes about things that he agreed beforehand must not even be hinted at under any circumstance whatsoever. Then he comes back, looks you in the eye, and proudly asks, “Did it go well?”
Apparently, such things happen in all quarters. Friday is upon us, so I recommend a very well written piece in the Economist (of all places): “Sins of omission: Pope’s visit to the Holy Land adds another public-relations disaster to the string that already exists.”