One of the reason I’ve never been high on Obama is that I don’t think he’s capable. He’s certainly never demonstrated excellence at running an organization. And by organization, I mean an organization of directors. That is, a team of managers who themselves manage managers who AGAIN, have a team of people.
Obama has never been held responsible for meeting organizational milestones. Of urging teams of people with competing priorities and views of success. Obama hasn’t managed money, a bottom line or deadlines.
I manage people. And I can’t imagine Barack Obama being hired as a 2nd or 3rd level manager. He simply doesn’t bring any experience to the table.
Romney, of course, has this in spades.
But THIS is frustrating:
Mitt Romney on Tuesday accused the media of looking to protect President Obama by focusing on the GOP candidate’s high-profile gaffes during his week-long foreign tour rather than more substantive policy issues he discussed.
“I realize that there will be some in the fourth estate or in whichever estate who are far more interested in finding something to write about that is unrelated to the economy, to geo-politics, to the threat of war, to the reality of conflict in Afghanistan today, to a nuclearization of Iran,” Romney told Fox News. “They’ll instead try to find anything else to divert from the fact that these last four years have been tough years for our country.”
Even if true, and I’m sympathetic to the claim, complaining about it is nonsensical. It’s a tactic that doesn’t get anything done, weakens the candidate and takes away from the real message.
In Poli-Sci there is a very strong school of thought that says business success is absolutely irrelevant to success in politics. Governors and Presidents from the business world tend to do poorly in government because it requires a completely different skill set. The biggest myth is that somehow running a government is like running a business — it’s a whole different ball game!
As for Obama, in looking at his record and reading books about how he operates I think he’s the most effective leader we’ve had in decades. George H.W. Bush was pretty good, before that you have to go back to Ike. Obama’s in trouble solely because we’re in a global economic crisis that no President would be able to impact much. Moreover, the GOP has rejected working with him, making reasonable compromise hard. Still, compared to past Presidents, the list of his accomplishments is pretty substantial: http://pleasecutthecrap.typepad.com/main/what-has-obama-done-since-january-20-2009.html
In Poli-Sci there is a very strong school of thought that says business success is absolutely irrelevant to success in politics.
I tend to disagree with that. However, to the extent that I DO agree with it I see that managing the political battles experienced by a governor is more closely associated with the job of president.
Obama’s in trouble solely because we’re in a global economic crisis that no President would be able to impact much.
Not surprisingly, I disagree. Obama’s actions are making it worse, or to be most polite, preventing it from improving as much as it otherwise would.
In political science it’s considered pretty much a truism that success in business is irrelevant to success in government. Government is not at all like business and needs a completely different skill set.
Moreover, in looking at Obama’s record and reading reports of his decision making style, my view is that Obama is the most effective leader in decades — only George H.W. Bush and Ike compare favorably with Obama since 1953. Obama is just hurt because a global crisis has the economy slumping, but no President can “fix” that, these are variables that are outside of any government’s complete control. The only reason Germany and Scandinavia are doing better is because of decisions they made before the crisis that set them up for superior performance. As for Obama’s accomplishments, despite GOP refusal to cooperate he’s done more than most Presidents:
(I’m cutting out the link to a list of Obama’s accomplishments to see if that’s the reason my posts don’t show up).
Apparently the link to Obama’s accomplishments is what caused my comments not to show. It’s at a website called “pleasecutthecrap” followed by a period then typepad.com. If you go to the main page there is a link on the right hand side to “documented Obama accomplishments” (about 130 I believe).