thank you, i'll be here all week

I've been working on this theory that there are just a handful of small actions which, if observed, can reveal volumes about a person's inability to be a leader. In other words, bad leaders have "tells." If you're fortunate enough to spot one of these tells early enough, you can take action and save your group or your business or your community -- or you can simply get far enough away to save your own sanity.

One of the tells goes like this: When a very serious question or issue is placed before the supposed leader, he or she attempts to make a joke. This is often played off as "having a sense of humor even in tough times." But the truth is that it's a tactic to distract people and avoid having to give a straight answer.

Here's a real-world example, from President Bush's press conference on Thursday:

Q: Thank you, Mr. President. I'd like to ask you about the Petraeus report, which as you say, will be in September, and report on the progress. Doesn't setting up the September date give the enemy exactly what you've said you don't want them to have, which is a date to focus on, and doesn't it guarantee a bloody August? And while I have you, sir, the phrase you just used, "a different configuration in Iraq" that you'd like to see, is that a plan B?

THE PRESIDENT: Actually I would call that a plan recommended by Baker-Hamilton, so that would be a plan BH.

The transcript doesn't say it, but if you'd watched the conference on TV, you'd have noticed the complete lack of even a courtesy laugh from the crowd. The President continues speaking, but then catches himself -- and, as if on stage at a comedy club, asks the crowd, "You didn't like it?"

Not really.

And while it's a bit late -- and granted, a bit overplayed -- to be looking for Bush's tells at this point, it's not a bad time to start looking at what the various 2008 candidates are giving away about themselves. For instance, there's that certain candidate who decided that the best response to a question about taking action against Iran was to sing "Bomb Iran" to the tune of the Beach Boys' "Barbara Ann".

War, ain't it hi-larious?