Obama’ the manager

A word for Obama: “Camarón que se duerme se lo lleva la corriente”

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Wake up Obama or you may drifting downstream with all of the other “camarones”.

The latest explanation about the ObamaCare “fumble” is that President Obama does not like to hear “bad news”.

This is from Gloria Borger:

“People don’t like to tell him bad news,” says an ex-White House staffer. “Part of it is the no-drama culture.””

My guess is that President FDR did not like getting the bad news from Pearl Harbor or those horrible casualty reports from 1943-44.  Also, President GW Bush did not enjoy hearing  about planes flying into the World Trade Center or that violence was out of control in Iraq 2006.

To say the least, bad news comes with the job.  In other words, a man who does not like “bad news” should be holding a safe Illinois Senate seat in Rev Wright’s neighborhood rather than serving as commander in chief of the US.

My guess is that this is a lot more complicated than the “boss” does not like bad news.

I think that there are two problems in this White House:

1) The boss is “disengaged”, “disinterested” or “an abdicative manager” as Frank Burke wrote at American Thinker in 2011:

“In classic management theory, Barack Obama would have to be described as an abdicativemanager.

The abdicative manager evidences a tendency to flee from responsibility and is frequently encountered in situations where he or she never wanted the job in the first place (for instance, a son or daughter who inherits a company or the individual who discovers that they are incapable of adequate performance). Abdication can be exhibited in a variety of ways, ranging from physically removing oneself through travel (the confusion of movement with action), to obsessing about personal interests or a limited range of controllable subjects.

Obama’s frequent vacations and absences, especially in times of crisis, coupled with his unwillingness to personally invest himself in key initiatives, are demonstrative of this style. An excellent example occurred after passage of the healthcare initiative.

Having ceded authority in what would later be described as his key achievement to Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, he watched as they forced the bill through under a manufactured emergency that precluded lawmakers from having time to read it.

He then went on a four-day vacation before signing it.”

2) No one was put in charge of the ObamaCare project. There were lots of people with titles or who made appearances before Congress. Unfortunately, there was no project manager who oversaw all of the components and held people accountable along the way.

President Obama has been using a lot of football analogies, i.e. fumble, my team, etc.

The truth is that he fell asleep on the job!  He did not take the time to get engaged or to demand explanations.  Sadly, the message came down the chain of command that the boss was not demanding results!

He should have read what Lee Iococca said about being the boss:

“I’ve always found that the speed of the boss is the speed of the team.”

 

The problem is that Obama “se ahoga en un vaso de agua”

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“Obama the manager” is suddenly a topic for discussion.  Put me down as one who thinks that President Obama does not like “the managerial duties” of the presidency.  He loves Air Force One, the ceremonial tasks and White House Chef but not the often hard work of governing and dealing with difficult problems.

He is also “in over his head”.  In cubano, we say “se ahoga en un vaso de agua”.

My friend Frank Burke described Obama the manager like this:

“In classic management theory, Barack Obama would have to be described as an abdicative manager.

The abdicative manager evidences a tendency to flee from responsibility and is frequently encountered in situations where he or she never wanted the job in the first place (for instance, a son or daughter who inherits a company or the individual who discovers that they are incapable of adequate performance).  Abdication can be exhibited in a variety of ways, ranging from physically removing oneself through travel (the confusion of movement with action), to obsessing about personal interests or a limited range of controllable subjects.

Obama’s frequent vacations and absences, especially in times of crisis, coupled with his unwillingness to personally invest himself in key initiatives, are demonstrative of this style.

An excellent example occurred after passage of the healthcare initiative.

Having ceded authority in what would later be described as his key achievement to Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, he watched as they forced the bill through under a manufactured emergency that precluded lawmakers from having time to read it.

He then went on a four-day vacation before signing it.”

I think that Frank got it right back in 2011!

Today, Edward Luce added this to the picture of Obama the manager:

“The simple explanation is that Mr Obama’s White House is dominated by a coterie of insiders who have learnt that their boss does not like to hear bad news. Nor are friendly whistleblowers made to feel welcome. Whether on Syria, spying revelations or the White House’s preferred candidate to head the Federal Reserve, the president has been caught off guard by recent crises. “

My concern is that we have a man overwhelmed by events and surrounded by people who won’t give him the straight stuff.   The word around this White House is that “the boss” does not like conflict or people telling him that the website won’t be operational on time.

My bigger concern is that our enemies are also watching this president incapable of leading or running a minimally competent administration.

The world is watching Obama and that should worry everyone.  We are talking about the president of the US not some leader of a small nation with no leadership role.