Friday, January 22, 2010

Obama as Manager. How's He Doin'?

In a recent comment Bax made an excellent point: "They have the power, they need to manage it."

I think in assessing Obama's management skills, as measured by his results so far, any candid viewer would have to say "He sucks!"

The global promise was "Change." He packaged it as "Change We Can Believe In." Nice promise and good idea. I like visionaries.

Now then, here comes the hard part: actually doing something. He did do some things that he promised he would do. He announced closing Gitmo. Turns out that managing the process is harder than making the promise and Gitmo isn't closed and I wouldn't want to have to forecast when it will be.

He did go around apologizing to the world, and the people of the world seem to feel good about him, but measuring a benefit of any consequence (accepting Gitmo Guys, for instance, or providing increased support in Afghanistan, or helping to arm-twist the Iranis) is hard to do. Getting results is hard.

But the biggest and most collosal management failure is Obamacare. He had an overwhelming majority in the House, a bulletproof majority in the Senate and, after one full year in office he has wasted his honeymoon good will, alienated HIS OWN BASE!!! not to mention the vast amjority of Independents, and, because of the emphasis on this failed mission, has gotten essentially nothing else done.

Mangement is about the allocation of resources towards problems and producing results that improve the prior situation. He should have been unstoppable, BUT (and many of us pointed this out during the campaign) he has never been responsible for a meaningful outcome in his life, other than a political campaign. He is a fantastic failure, so far, as a manager. Period. And don't blame Pelosi and Reid. They are the ones he chose to delegate to. He owns that decision and the consequences of that decision. Wrap you head around this thought: I want change, so I'm going to entrust my most important initiative to Nancy and Harry. wow.

I take no satisfaction in his incompetence. He has three years to go, and I am sure that the good guys and the bad guys around the world can also see that he is a management dofus.

Here's a simple question: Who's afraid of Obama? I am concerned that the answer is, Not our enemies. Even worse, I am concerned that the people who now fear Obama are our friends. Would you want to count on him if you were our friend in Pakistan? Afghanistan? Ukraine? Belarus? etc, etc.

He is a management moron, and we are all in trouble because of it.

Hags

3 comments:

Jim G. said...

Great post!

The wacky left is just so much fun. They usually act like the dog chasing the car except this time they caught the car.

They say these crazy things without thinking through the consequences.

Like:

Let's close Gitmo!...Oh, where should be put the prisoners? Don't know.

Off oil as an energy source!...what? No, we do not have an alternative energy source and we are really against nuclear! Off nuclear!

Let's take over and manage health care! Why? Well some (OK a few) people don't have health insurance and it is expensive, that's why! What? Then just propose measures to reduce expense like tort reform and competition? No! We need to take over the whole thing! What? People don't trust that a government which is spending us and our children into bankruptcy can run health care? Curse them! They do not know what is good for them, we do! We care! Huh? Well yes, paying off the various constituencies to create such a boondoggle created a horrible bill but...trust us, we will fix it later, we just need to act now!

And:

Tax the wealthy! Why? They have all the money you moron and SOCIAL JUSTICE! What? No, they will not change their behavior! Why would they! They won't miss it. What? The proposed health care excise tax, cap and trade, repeal of previous tax cuts, invalidating of previous bonus contracts HAVE NO EFFECT on the wealthy, they are too busy sipping wine on their yachts. Huh? No way! Don't even begin to say that if we had given an equal amount of tax cuts (of money we do not have) instead of spending money we do not have as a "stimulus" we would be pulling out of this mess! No way! Not true! That would challenge my whole belief system!

So Hags, while one can whole heartedly agree with your conclusion of the "o" management style, his underlying belief system and the goal of his management are incoherent.

Anonymous said...

Good post Hags! You have, once again, succinctly summed up the management process (use resources to solve problems). You have also pointed out, fairly I may add, Obama's inept management style. Those of us who have actually run something in our lives can appreciate your argument. I find it interesting that since his rebuke in Mass. our president has changed targets from healthcare to demonizing Wall Street. Obviously a blatant populist political charade. I do not wish for total failure on his part but he really needs to change his direction.

Anonymous said...

I love the business metaphor. Obama starts with a perfect balance sheet, great cash flow and what does he do? He markets products that the customers want no part of and yet he fires Rick Waggoner for doing exactly that. Good luck with GM!