Yes they do. Such a strategy needs to be thought out first. Brains followed by people skills.

ogugua88:

Yes they do. Such a strategy needs to be thought out first. Brains followed by people skills.

Dude . . . everyone stepping up for the Presidential candidacy has brains.
The people skills and witty speeches make people like JFK, Clinton and Obama stand out.

Democracy is a popularity contest, Wyclef Jean has the popularity to win.

everyone stepping up for the presidency has a brain but some the brain some people bring to the table dont cut it. does wyclef's cut it? lets listen to him and what his plans are before we make our conclusion

must_a_far:

everyone stepping up for the presidency has a brain but some the brain some people bring to the table dont cut it. does wyclef's cut it? lets listen to him and what his plans are before we make our conclusion

Y'all need to chill . . . all I said is, if he runs, he will win.
Why?? People skills, the biggest factor in Obama's election.

He doesn't need to convince you, you don't have a Haitian passport so you don't have a say in this.

wyclef should win it, he'll make a good president, i think

eldee:

Y'all need to chill . . . all I said is, if he runs, he will win.
Why?? People skills, the biggest factor in Obama's election.

He doesn't need to convince you, you don't have a Haitian passport so you don't have a say in this.

are you saying that jay z would win d presidency if he ran?
or 9ice or p square would win nigerian election?

we don't know how haitians perceive wyclef as presidential candidate so lets not jump into conclusions. he might win if americans were voting for haitian election but thats not d case.
wyclef is prolly the only haitian we know so we can't think of other better qualified candidates.
i'm sure haitians know of ppl with both people skills and proper credentials that we don't know about unless we follow haitian news


maybe his money and "american" status will help him win (unfortunately) but not because he has people skills. most entertainers have ppl skill but they're not president for a reason.

I wish him all the luck in the world.

Interesting article from Yahoo:

Wyclef Jean to Run for President of Haiti

By TIM PADGETT / PORT-AU-PRINCE – Wed Aug 4, 2:10 am ET

Hip-hop, more than most pop genres, is something of a pulpit, urban fire and brimstone garbed in baggy pants and backward caps. So it's little wonder that one of the music form's icons, Haitian-American superstar Wyclef Jean, is the son of a Nazarene preacher - or that he likens himself, as a child of the Haitian diaspora, to a modern-day Moses, destined to return and lead his people out of bondage. Haiti's Jan. 12 earthquake, which ravaged the western hemisphere's poorest country and killed more than 200,000 people, was the biblical event that sealed his calling. After days of helping ferry mangled Haitian corpses to morgues, Jean felt as if he'd "finished the journey from my basket in the bulrushes to standing in front of the burning bush," he told me this week. "I knew I'd have to take the next step."
That would be running for President of Haiti. Jean told Time he is going to announce his candidacy for the Nov. 28 election just days before the Aug. 7 deadline. One plan that was discussed, loaded with as much Mosaic symbolism as a news cycle can hold, called for him to declare his candidacy on Aug. 5 upon arriving in Port-au-Prince from New York, where he grew up after leaving Haiti with his family at age 9. "If not for the earthquake, I probably would have waited another 10 years before doing this," Jean says. "The quake drove home to me that Haiti can't wait another 10 years for us to bring it into the 21st century." Jean sees no contradiction between his life as an artist and his ambitions as a politician. "If I can't take five years out to serve my country as President," he argues, "then everything I've been singing about, like equal rights, doesn't mean anything." (Watch the video of Wyclef Jean discussing his plans to run for president of Haiti.)
It's tempting to dismiss this as flaky performance art, a publicity stunt from the same guy who just a few years ago recorded a number called "President" that included the refrain "If I was President." But Jean's chances as well as his motives seem solid. And there are good reasons for Haitians - and the U.S.-led international donor community, which is bankrolling Haiti's long slog to the 21st century - to take this particular hip-hop politician seriously. Pop-culture celebrity hardly disqualifies you from high office today. (The last time I looked, an action hero was still running California.) And in Haiti, where half the population of about 9 million is under age 25, it's an asset as golden as a rapper's chains. Amid Haiti's gray postquake rubble, Jean is far more popular with that young cohort than their chronically corrupt and inept mainstream politicians are, and he'll likely galvanize youth participation in the election.
More important, Jean stands to prove that fame can do more than lift voter turnout - or raise millions of dollars for earthquake victims, as his YÉle Haiti (Haiti Freedom Cry) foundation has this year. His presidential run, win or lose, could build a long-awaited bridge between Haiti and its diaspora: a legion of expatriates and their progeny, many of them successful in pursuits spanning every field, who number 800,000 in the U.S. alone. International aid managers agree that Haiti really can't recover from the quake unless it taps into the education, capital, entrepreneurial drive and love for mother country that Jean epitomizes - even if his French (one of Haiti's official languages) is poor and his Creole (the other) is rusty. "A lot of Haitians are excited about this," says Marvel Dandin, a popular Port-au-Prince radio broadcaster. "Given the awful situation in Haiti right now," he says, "most people don't care if the President speaks fluent Creole."

SEE MORE
http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/08599200858800#mwpphu-container


Interesting comments I found

"Modern day Moses huh? Whenever anyone compares themselves to a biblical figure, its an instant sign of arrogance. No biblical figure throughout history became boastful for the good that they did. Moses led a lot of people to the promise land but WAS'NT allowed in himself, I hope the "modern day Moses" keeps that in mind."

"Wanting to make a difference is great - I love his motivations. What are his credentials? The rhetoric of comparisons will flood I am sure but seriously what is his platform for "change". Does he possess any formal education or experience lending one to believe he understands economy, development, trade, budgeting, delegating authority, national security, human rights, and leadership?

I hope the best for Haiti but wonder if this is their best answer."

oyinda.:

are you saying that jay z would win d presidency if he ran?
or 9ice or p square would win nigerian election?

we don't know how haitians perceive wyclef as presidential candidate so lets not jump into conclusions. he might win if americans were voting for haitian election but thats not d case.
wyclef is prolly the only haitian we know so we can't think of other better qualified candidates.
i'm sure haitians know of ppl with both people skills and proper credentials that we don't know about unless we follow haitian news


maybe his money and "american" status will help him win (unfortunately) but not because he has people skills. most entertainers have ppl skill but they're not president for a reason.

You're saying it like the people in the government are even popular in the first place.
Didn't you hear of the political trouble they had before the earthquake that led to the President going into exile??
Wyclef Jean is not your 9ice or Lady Gaga in Haiti, he's a face to them, the most famous man in Haiti . . . no questions about that.

What of what his charity organisation has done for the country?? Here was the most popular man in the country digging for bodies through the rubble on live TV, and you say that's Beyonce's people skills??

Besides, do you think Obasanjo would have ever been President in a country where half the population is under age-21??
America is not Haiti, a tiny underdeveloped country with a very young population that's just come-back from earthquake and saved in a large part due to the effort of one man . . . saying Clef wouldn't win in a fair election is like saying Bob Marley would lose a popularity contest in Jamaica.

Questions about his charity may dog Wyclef Jean’s presidential bid
By John Cook

Musician Wyclef Jean, of Fugees fame, has announced his intent to run for president in his native Haiti, a decision he's likely to explain tonight — as have so many novice political aspirants before him — in an appearance on "Larry King Live." Jean is beloved in Haiti as a local boy made good, and he became the impoverished country's international face in the wake of January's devastating earthquake, raising in the process millions of dollars for his charity, Yele Haiti.
But celebrity aside, if Haitian voters take a close look at how Jean has run his charitable affairs, they may not like what they see. While Yele Haiti has done undeniable good for Haitians before and after the earthquake, investigators have found that the organization has been shoddily run at best — and, at worst, it's been used as a way to line Jean's pockets. He has used Yele Haiti to pay his mistress a steady six-figure salary, charged it hundreds of thousands of dollars in personal performance fees for fundraisers, and seen his own employees quit in disgust over what they describe as Jean's "sense of entitlement" and "lack of financial commitment" to the charity.
If Jean succeeds in his political quest — he stepped down from Yele Haiti today in order to devote himself full-time to politics — it will be because of the publicity and local goodwill that Yele has earned him. But if he fails, it may be because he has used the organization to pursue his own private interests as much as the interests of the Haitian people. Here's a breakdown of the organization's troubled and scandal-filled history (in nearly all instances where reporters had reached out to Jean or Yele officials for comment, either the requests went unanswered or received a "no comment"; when Yele officials did offer comment, it's quoted below):
• As the Smoking Gun first pointed out, for at least three years, Yele Haiti paid Jean's production company $31,000 in annual rent for one Yele staffer to operate out of the kitchen of Jean's Manhattan studio. The rent, $2,600 a month, went to Platinum Sound, a company co-owned by Jean and his partner (and Yele Haiti board member) Jerry Duplessis. In 2006, the charity actually prepaid Platinum for two years of rent, handing over a lump sum of $65,000. Yele Haiti defended the payments by claiming that the rent Platinum charged was far below market rates.
• Yele Haiti paid Jean's mistress and personal assistant, Zakiya Khatou-Chevassus, $105,000 in 2008. According to the organization's 2008 tax returns, Yele paid Khatou-Chevassus $105,000 for "program development." And as recently as March, Yele Haiti's website listed her as the group's vice president. But five sources familiar with Yele Haiti told Gawker (where this blogger used to work) earlier this year that Khatou-Chevassus worked as Jean's personal assistant — including on tasks like booking flights and shopping that had nothing to do with Yele Haiti's charitable endeavors. All five also told Gawker that Jean, who has previously described his marriage as an open relationship, was romantically involved with Khatou-Chevassus.

SEE MORE:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20100805/us_yblog_upshot/questions-about-his-chairty-may-dog-wyclef-jeans-presidential-bid

Where una dey? I've posted facts and articles and you all dispersed.

Skepticism widens over Wyclef Jean’s presidential run
By Liz Goodwin

Haitian-born singer Wyclef Jean officially launched his bid to run Haiti only a day ago, but he's already facing criticism from a fellow celebrity-activist — and he's facing a onetime bandmate's embarrassing endorsement of Jean's chief rival, too.
Actor Sean Penn, whose charity has been running a Haitian survivor camp of 50,000 since the killer earthquake, said on CNN that he's "suspicious" of Jean's bid.
"This is somebody who's going to receive an enormous amount of support from the United States, and I have to say I'm very suspicious of it, simply because he, as an ambassador at large, has been virtually silent. For those of us in Haiti, he has been a nonpresence," he said. You can watch Penn's comments below:

Penn also brought up allegations that Jean mishandled $400,000 of the $9 million he raised for his charity, Yele Haiti, after the quake, and mentioned the "vulgar entourage of vehicles" in which Jean traveled in the country.
[Photos: See a slideshow of Wyclef Jean, in Haiti and onstage]
Jean stepped down from the foundation before announcing his run in a glitch-filled interview Thursday night with CNN's Wolf Blitzer. He told CNN the youth of Haiti want him to run.
"I just want Sean Penn to fully understand that I am a Haitian, born in Haiti, and I've been coming to my country ever since a child," Jean told the Associated Press in an interview (the Penn section comes about half a minute in, at the 0:36 mark):

According to the AP story, Jean continued: "He might just want to pick up the phone and meet, so he fully understands the man."
The Smoking Gun uncovered this week that Jean owes over $2 million in back taxes to the IRS. (The Upshot has a guide to the many financial scandals dogging Jean.)
Meanwhile, Jean's own former bandmate Pras, who was in the Fugees with Jean and Lauryn Hill, endorsed Jean's opponent in a stone-cold statement. "I endorse Michel Martell as the next president of Haiti because he is the most competent candidate for the job," Pras said.
But before voters weigh in on questions of relative competence, Haiti's election board will have to decide whether Jean qualifies for the job. To run for president, you must have lived in Haiti for the five consecutive years before the election and never have held foreign citizenship. Jean moved to the United States when he was 9, and the AP says that by most accounts he has not fulfilled the residency requirement.
Jean's wealth — regardless of any financial improprieties — could either be a boon for his campaign in the poverty-stricken country or a reminder of how different, and possibly out of touch, he is compared with the average Haitian. "His estimated annual income of up to $18 million is more than 13,000 times more than the average Haitian sees in a year — assuming that person even has a job," the Associated Press points out.
The election is scheduled for November.


See the interviews here:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20100806/pl_yblog_upshot/in-u-s-skepticism-widens-over-wyclef-jeans-presidential-run#mwpphu-container

As far as i am concerned Wyclef is the best candidate for the job. for those of you scoffing at him, which nigerian president or senator is better than him?
The writer who listed his pluses is so right. For him it wont be about money, he has seen it all, his money from his records will still be rolling in in millions of dollars whether he sings again or not. Beautiful women,cars, houses, vacations, adulation what else, he has been there done that bought the t shirt! Has Haiti had any good president before I doubt it. He can only do them a world of good as evidenced from his recent efforts after the earthquake. Have you forgotten that Ronald Regan, an actor was the American President of United States of America? and Arnold Swazerniger a current governor? MR WYCLEF JEAN RIDE ON TO PRESIDENCY OF HAITI! WITH A GOOD SONG OF COURSE!!!