In national politics, the popular approval rating is a good indicator of the amount of political capital national leaders such as the president has. The capital can change relatively rapidly. The spending of political capital becomes very difficult or dangerous at times because good leaders on occasion have to go against the majority or a substantial proportion of the public or group in order to achieve a necessary goal. Most national politicians are very reluctant to reduce social security spending even though good evidence exists for that need. M any leaders are also supporters at the same time and in the same organization or situation .
Any national issue has many layers of leaders.
Some are leaders at the national, some at the state, and some at the local levels. A ll leaders fail at one time or another in their attempts to influence other peoples' behavior. Every person attempts to be a leader at some time and fails. A mixture of success and failure is a normal part of leadership. Leaders learn from their failures and try again.