Let’s face it, being President is a tough job, twenty-four hour a day, a 365 day a year job that no human being could do without some break. Be that as it may, to be effective a president must do far more than give speeches and appeal to a largely under informed populace that hangs on every word promising more of this or that. As Teddy Roosevelt once illustrated about a man who had recently engaged a butler and set him to work by saying, ” I don’t know in the least what you are to do, but … you get busy and buttle like hell.”
It’s quite obvious that our President had little or no experience running much of anything and his time in elected office was mostly spent spouting the familiar rhetoric and voting present or not at all. He may have an idea what he wants to do, but like our butler friend, he does not know in the least what the President of the United States is to do, but it would be nice if he started Presidenting … for all Americans and for the long term benefit of the Nation.
I recall my days in corporate life (far short of Presidential responsibilities mind you) when officers were expected to get the job done even if it meant 12-15 hour days, working on weekends, working on vacations or skipping them altogether, missing holidays, birthdays and even an anniversary or two. During critical periods we occasionally never went home for several days.
And there was another critical expected behavior; building consensus. That meant you talked to all stakeholders, you vetted your idea or solution to build support, not just acceptance. To do so you modified an idea, even accepted what given your own way you would not do. The objective was to reach a plan that would be supported by all, that would work. What you never did, at least more than once, was do an end run. You did not ignore certain people, go over their head or misrepresent their positions, you did not ridicule their point of view. You did not box them in so they had to accept you idea or more accurately pay it lip service. The objective was not to merely win, but to reach the best possible (workable) solution for the organization and to do so in a way as agreeable as possible to as many people as possible. This was not easy and more often than not, the end result was considerably different than if you had your own way in things… but that is part of leadership.
And of course there were budgets. Short-term and long term budgets. Budgets that assigned priority to the things we needed to do and wanted to do. Some things never made it to the final budget as desirable as they may have been. Sometimes we had to cut budgets which nobody liked, but which happened. This Administration has ignored the budget process for four years. There is no approved budget, we just wing it.
It’s the hard stuff that will ultimately be the downfall of the middle class and yet Mr Obama shies away from those issues. Selling America on a $9.00 minimum wage is easy, telling people the truth about global competition and it’s impact on our standard of living is hard. Pushing pre-school is easy, telling people that the dysfunctional family is not helping our educational process is hard although I must admit he has touched on that third rail on occasion.
Our President made promises in his State of the Union Address to the delight of virtually every member of his base, perhaps all Americans, and yet he virtually ignored Social Security, glossed over the problems of Medicare and when was the last time you heard about dealing the ongoing problems in the Middle East? After his address he was off to sell his ideas, not to members of Congress, but to those most susceptible to rhetoric … and then he went to play golf.
Mr. Obama is said to admire Abraham Lincoln, unfortunately he acts more like John Quincy Adams who wanted things his way and refused to compromise.
Mr. President, if you want a lasting legacy, lead. Tackle the hard issues that will affect all Americans and especially the next generation. Give us a budget and stick with it. Stop moving numbers around and really tackle the deficit, even if you set in motion only long term strategies. Stop spouting rhetoric about the horrors of trimming the growth in spending. Work with all members of Congress no matter how frustrating that may be, it’s your job. You are one third of the federal government, you must work with the other two thirds like it or not. If the Congress is dysfunctional, it is partly your fault just as a failing division in a corporation is the fault of the CEO even though he is not directly involved in that operation.
While you are yelling fore, America is yelling help!
Obama flew on Air Force One yesterday from an official event to promote his economic proposals in his adopted hometown of Chicago to West Palm Beach, Florida, for the weekend getaway at the Floridian in Palm City while his wife and daughters are on a ski vacation.
Accompanying Obama on Air Force One was Whitaker, a Chicago friend who played golf with the president during the first family’s August 2010 vacation on Martha’s Vineyard off the Massachusetts coast.
With no election campaign ahead of him, Obama, 51, is beginning to embrace some of the political freedom that comes along with the lame-duck status of a second-term presidency. The White House has kept details about the weekend to a minimum.
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