Lip Synching Peter Robinson
I'm on the road a lot these days and can't always keep up, so forgive me if someone posted this already. Did anyone else notice that Ricochet's own Peter Robinson played a major role in Saturday's debate? On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal ran Peter's excellent op-ed, which began with these words:
"Although a lot of Republicans keep wishing otherwise, running the federal government is nothing at all like running a business. Presidents don't hire or fire members of Congress, and only a few thousand of the more than one million civilians that the federal government employs serve at the chief executive's pleasure. An aptitude for reviewing business plans or a talent for wooing investors—useless.
Presidents must instead govern by getting the rest of us to see things they way they see them. They need to interest, move and compel us."
I noticed the wisdom of this right away and wrote to tell Peter so. Apparently, I wasn't the only one who saw it. Three days later at the debate, Rick Santorum launched this attack on Mitt Romney's credentials:
“[Romney] says, 'I've got business experience.' Well, business experience doesn’t necessarily match up with being the commander in chief of this country. The commander in chief of this country isn’t a CEO. It’s someone who has to lead and it’s also being the president is not a CEO. You can’t direct members of Congress and members of the Senate as to how you do things. You’ve got to lead and inspire."
Coincidence? I think not. Peter is used to his words coming out of the mouths of presidents, but apparently that wasn't enough for him. Now he's become the grand political puppet master, guiding the thoughts, words and actions of the candidates even before they reach the White House.
Can this power mad maniac be stopped?
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Jan '11
Re: Lip Synching Peter Robinson
Obi Wan Robinson ... these aren't the droids you're looking for ...
Re: Lip Synching Peter Robinson
I wrote about this very issue when Corzine was running for Governor in New Jersey. Government and Business are very different.
If part of my business is losing money, I don't have to continue that part of my business.
Try that with a road or a school if you are Governor. It doesn't work that way. You have to provide without profit in Government, often without revenue.
No business person has something in his little black briefcase of tricks to fix goverment.
Edited on Jan 9 at 4:21pmApr '11
Re: Lip Synching Peter Robinson
Heh. Peter may be a power maniac, but he is absolutely correct. The government is not a business; it can't be run as a business; therefore, it cannot make rational economic calculations. The implications for limited government go far and deep.
Edited on Jan 9 at 4:21pmJul '11
Re: Lip Synching Peter Robinson
"Can this power mad maniac be stopped?"
The answer is yes. Influenza may not do it but the pepper spray is waiting in the wings. Best not show your face round here Mr. agitator.
Oct '11
Re: Lip Synching Peter Robinson
On the other hand, I don't think business acumen is a negative. It does make sense to want someone in office who understands how to build a budget. That doesn't mean that a president with a business background will automatically be able to get their budget passed by congress, but hopefully the president with a business background will submit a budget that does not have a $1 trillion deficit.
Dec '10
Re: Lip Synching Peter Robinson
The more important question about Romney is whether or not his political experience is a positive. His signature achievement certainly is not.
Jun '10
Re: Lip Synching Peter Robinson
In regards to our beloved Peter Robinson...bring on the Nyquil. And next year get a flu shot!
Aug '10
Re: Lip Synching Peter Robinson
I'm sorta disappointed.
I thought this was going to be a "Bad Lip Reading" video using clips from Uncommon Knowledge.
;-)
Jan '11
Re: Lip Synching Peter Robinson
OK. I get it “we” are all against Romney. So who are “we” for? This is such a huge election, such a major fork in the road, like the choice Russia had in 1917. They took the left fork and 70+ years later found a dead end. Nothing, absolutely nothing, worthwhile came out of that experiment, except maybe the defectors. As Winston Churchill said ‘there is not one single social or economic principle or concept in the philosophy of the Russian Bolshevik which has not been realized, carried in to action, and enshrined in immutable laws a million years ago by the White Ant’. We all get it, the dangers we face. America must make the right choice. In my narrow view the right choice is to not re-elect Obama. What do “we” do to ensure this happens? We cannot screw it up. Thought leaders have a big responsibility here. So, trash Romney if you will. But at some point the intellectual pondering, and blogging, must result in or yield to success at the polls.
Aug '10
Re: Lip Synching Peter Robinson
Actually... Being President of the United States is a lot like being a CEO. As a CEO, you cannot fire the Bondholders (Senate) or the Board and Shareholders (House of Representatives). As the CEO of a corporation, there are only a few hundred employees you immediately supervise and whom you can hire and fire with relative ease. As a CEO, it is your ability to keep in mind the big picture and get buy in from middle management and the Board/Shareholders that makes or breaks you. Yes, the goals of government are in many ways different than a corporation, they are also very similar. A company needs to be concerned with creating value for it's shareholders, but a good company creates value for its shareholders and stakeholders. We need to stop thinking of government as some kind of animal different from business, "because it is about how the government does things." We need to start thinking about the government as a business in a, "does this company really do the best job of providing this product" way.
Re: Lip Synching Peter Robinson
I certainly hope not!
Apr '11
Re: Lip Synching Peter Robinson
Sorry to say it but Peter is just wrong on this one. Solid leadership in business is a plus not a minus. We shouldn't belittle Romney's experience in making big decisions in the private sector. It's not his entire resume either, he was governor of MA. By the way, how much executive (leadership) experience does Santorum have?
May '10
Re: Lip Synching Peter Robinson
I acknowledge the value of political experience and skill; not to the exclusion, however, of value brought by those with business experience-- with all its management, negotiation, public relations, sales, and other transferable skills. Was Truman better or worse for having been a failed haberdasher? (This does not mean I believe Trump is qualified!) What about military experience? Is Eisenhower considered a failed president for lack of political experience, or for instituting a military management style? I think not. Can it be denied that Obama's obvious ignorance of business and how economies work is a huge impediment?
It's not as simple as either/or, is it?
May '10
Re: Lip Synching Peter Robinson
Experience in the private sector does give one a real-world grasp of capitalism, while public-sector-lifers like Gingrich and Perry remain mired in their OWS understanding of capital investment and profit-making.
BTW, did Professor Gingrich manage to miss the entire point of Milton Friedman's life?
(Edit: Note that it's possible both Gingrich and Perry really do understand capitalism but are just lying.)
Edited on Jan 9 at 6:48pmDec '11
Re: Lip Synching Peter Robinson
Thomas Jefferson was a terrible business manager. Herbert Hoover was a great business manager.
Jul '11
Re: Lip Synching Peter Robinson
At the very least, an understanding of costs and revenues would separate Romney from what has apparently been a teeny-bopper level of fiscal and monetary policy that's been driving the White House bus for 3 years. To assume that leadership in a business bears no relation to managing and leading in the White House demonstrates too much of a longtime focus on politics, rather than on what the rest of the world spends the bulk of its time doing - working for a living, to provide for families.
CEOs, and small business owners, do not come close to having the simple, uncomplicated array of choices to make in the workplace, be it at a board meeting or in the stockroom/warehouse. Choices are enormously restricted, and large shifts in assets, capital, project direction, board makeup, hiring, etc., all have the same virtually limitless permutations that a President would have to grapple with. To state that Romney's experience isn't a match is stating he's no more capable than Obama - and that's an entirely laughable premise.
Oct '10
Re: Lip Synching Peter Robinson
Business experience is not a minus, but persuasiveness would be an incalculable plus with the deep divide in this country. The press portrays Romney as a heartless, robotic businessman and Perry as an inarticulate hayseed that can't hold two thoughts in his head at the same time and can either of these two convince the American people otherwise? Does Santorum-the-Pinched have the good-natured charisma to go over the heads of the MSM and take the conservative message straight to the people? Could Gingrich-the-Glib? Persuasive skills trump business aptitude by an order of magnitude at this point.
We need a Ryan or Christie, nimble, feisty yet likable... yeah I know, blah blah blah. We're not going to get either of them, so why don't I shut up and get on the Romney train that, in case I haven't noticed, has already left the station? Don't rush me. Keep preaching, Peter.
Apr '11
Re: Lip Synching Peter Robinson
This is part of Romney's excellent debate response to Santorum, whose attack depends on the notion that business leaders do not, well, lead or inspire. I'm much more bothered Santorum's answer than Peter's. Santorum did not repeatedly make it clear that he was just talking about speech-making, and does not have the excuse of being a speechwriter, let alone the speechwriter.
Aug '10
Re: Lip Synching Peter Robinson
I don't think this is a good analogy. Shareholders and bondholders don't make any decisions, other than whether to buy or sell their shares or bonds. Congress makes thousands of pages of laws, including many that bind the President. That's why people who have no business experience sometimes make excellent Presidents, but would never make a decent CEO.
Aug '10
Re: Lip Synching Peter Robinson
Shareholders who hold sufficient shares vote on decisions. Bondholders can dictate behavior if they own sufficient bonds. Shareholders are more akin to actual voters if you want to get real specific. But Congress is very much like a board -- elected by voter, etc.