Leadership Quote by DeForest Soaries

A politician doesn’t admit logistical vulnerability unless there’s a political reason to do it. Soaries’ line is less a confession of weakness than a controlled release of it: a preemptive defense against the inevitable “Why wasn’t it perfect?” that follows any national initiative built under a brutal clock.

The repetition of “We had to” does two jobs at once. It frames constraints as facts of nature, not managerial choices, and it quietly spreads responsibility outward. “Other institutions” becomes a stand-in for the university system, think tanks, consultants, even federal agencies - a way of saying: we weren’t freelancing; we borrowed credibility. That phrase “research on our behalf” is especially telling, hinting at a state that’s expected to act like a laboratory but is forced, by time or budget, to act like a customer.

Then there’s “information that already existed,” a pragmatic nod that also reads as inoculation against accusations of innovation theater. In public-sector America, best practices are often a patchwork of yesterday’s studies and someone else’s pilot program. Soaries leans into that reality: no bespoke experiments, no slow deliberation, just synthesis and distribution.

The kicker is “ten months,” deployed as a moral alibi and a suspense beat. It invites the audience to recalibrate what “success” should mean under emergency conditions. Subtext: judge us by triage standards, not ideal standards. Contextually, it’s the language of governance in crunch time - the bureaucracy trying to move at campaign speed, and asking to be graded on the curve.