Admiral Stockdale's Take On His Debate Performance

I found an interview that James Stockdale did with Jim Lehrer in 1999. The transcript is here.

I'll let the Admiral speak for himself, but a few things did jump out at me.

1. He considered character to be far more important than specifics. A man of character can deal with specifics. He says that he doesn't get up in the morning thinking about Social Security.

2. He was a placeholder because Ross Perot needed a warm body in states that required a declared VP. He never expected to be in a public debate, and he wasn't terribly thrilled about it.

3. He and Perot never ever talked about politics.

4. He considered physical courage to be very important. If he ran a presidential debate he would ask the candidates about a time when they had to demonstrate physical courage.

5. He was very realistic about his performance. He was surprised to be there, but that's where those other guys lived. It is what it is.

6. He describes his time in the big central prison as the founding of a new civilization. They lost everything and had to start over. He is proud of what they accomplished.

7. His experience during the VP debates caused him to feel emotion. There were highs and lows. His way seems to have been that you experience the emotion and then you deal with it. The emotion seems to happen whether you like it or not, and then you use philosophy to manage it.

So for anyone who wants to know "How does a Stoic handle X or Y?" This is how a Stoic handles it.

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The images used are official US government property, so I think that they are in the public domain.