Khama had served his country well as a young army commander; the first son of Botswana’s founding President Sir Seretse Khama, the heir apparent and the paramount chief of the Bangwato tribe. He was a decorated philanthropist, his mother’s true son!
For most observers, regardless of party affiliation, expectations for Khama’s presidency were very high. A political novice with no prior governing experience, Khama was doomed to the steepest of learning curves. After all, every president faces a learning curve, even the most experienced and prepared and who have the best and brightest of their party joining them at the helm of the ship of state. History and evidence suggest that presidents do learn, though there are individual differences in how they go about doing so. Much of every president’s learning depends on the administrative structure (and the individuals who occupy it) that surround the president. Over time, not only do presidents and their advisers learn how to be more effective at their jobs, but presidents learn to more effectively manage the mechanisms of governance. However, presidents don’t just learn from government apparatus. Presidents learn from public reactions and opinions, the media, civil society, academia etc. For any president or leader to learn (or be willing to learn), he or she first must be aware of (and dissatisfied with) his or her own ignorance and inadequacies. No man is perfect, presidents even more imperfect given the level of public scrutiny they endure. As John F. Kennedy reportedly said, “there is no school for commanders in chief.”
