Cleopatra rules

Stacy Schiff, the author of “Cleopatra: A Life,” has written a delightful piece for the New York Times about what modern day politicians can learn from “Queen Cleopatra, the Goddess, the Younger, Father-Loving and Fatherland-Loving.”

Two rules in particular stood out:

Appearances count. As President Obama has learned and unlearned, theater works wonders. You may campaign in poetry, but you are wise to govern in pageantry. Deliver carnivals rather than tutorials; a little vulgarity goes a long way. Just wear the flag pin already. Leadership is a trick of perception, a bit of wisdom Shakespeare lent Henry IV, to pass along to Prince Hal. And if you intend to command, look the part. Work boots with a suit are always a nice touch when you’re the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority in an occupied Middle Eastern country, for example. Make something of a spectacle of yourself. Yes, you can do that in jeans and a black turtleneck. In a televised world as in a pre-print era, it’s the stage management that counts. Literally or not, the idea is to create and star in your own reality show.

Control the narrative. Cleopatra understood well that the storytelling mattered as much as the decision-making, and that the best narrative is the easy-to-follow narrative.

Sounds like sound advice to me even if it is 2,000 years old. How about you, Mr. President?