One of the prime lessons I’ve learned from the success masters like Brian Tracy is the law of cause and effect, sometimes also called the law of sewing and reaping. The law says if you study success, learn its causes, and apply those causes to what you’re doing, then you can have success, too. Likewise, if you study failure and emulate what failures do, then you can be a failure.

Not only is this a law for personal success. The law of cause and effect applies to all other endeavors as well, such as business, sports, governing and economics. The law is also a prime factor in managing and investing.

If you manage someone or invest your money with someone, then you have expectations of performance at work and/or with the return on the money. When you don’t get the performance you expect, then you start searching for the reasons why. When you discover the reasons lie in the flawed philosophy they use, then you should be leery of continuing with them and their philosophy.

Accordingly, I thought President Obama’s summary of events from the year 2000 forward in the State of the Union speech was useful for those with long term memory issues. Now, I wish he had gone back two years further to 1998. That’s the year both parties and both Houses of Congress revoked the Glass-Steagall Act and enabled the speculation that led to the disaster we have today. Nevertheless, the reality is not Obama was elected and the economy collapsed. The reality is the policies and management of the leadership (predominately Republican) from the last 8 years have given us what we have today. The assertion Republican policies from the last 8 years have nothing to with current circumstances is an insult to even average intelligence.

So, as much as my own Congressman wants to whine that he wishes the President would focus on the future instead of reminding us of the past, I refuse to do that. I do remember how he voted in lockstep with that Republican leadership, that his philosophy is flawed, and (since I refuse to reward failure) I want to see him gone after this coming November.

You’re probably expecting direct commentary on the recent special US Senate election in Massachusetts won by Republican Scott Brown over Democrat Martha Coakley.

Actually, the election result illustrates many of the points being made here for some time. Accordingly, I’m going to continue with the theme I’ve had the last few weeks. The topics are building sequentially and I’ll comment more directly in about two weeks.

This week I want to continue to discuss simple and beneficial rules changes to our political process. One of the reasons I feel the feelings of frustration exist over our political process is the perception by certain groups the electoral process is rigged against them. Last week I suggested one solution to overcoming that feeling would be instituting Instant Runoff Voting (IRV). The other source of frustration is the workings of the Electoral College. Here are my suggestions for making the Electoral College better.

I realize strong feelings exist for doing away with the Electoral College altogether. I disagree. I think the writers of the Constitution . . .

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