Re: Lobbing Tarballs
Peter Robinson ·
Jun 14, 2010 at 3:55pm
From Ricochet reader Daniel Frank, two sentences that sum up the fix we're in for two more years--and maybe six:
It isn't necessarily fatal to have a chief executive with no actual experience at doing, building, hiring, creating, researching, healing, fighting crime, or making war, although it strikes me as extremely imprudent. What makes it so dangerous is that this executive thinks he can apply his one and only competency -- politics -- to all these domains.
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May '10
Re: Re: Lobbing Tarballs
I agree. It still strikes me strangely, though, that people ascribe to President Obama competency in politics. Getting elected is but one aspect of the political world. As a legislator, the president has shown no significant accomplishments. His presidential record is worse: a trillion dollar stimulus bill that produced no stimulus, a health care act whose only effect so far has been to raise health care costs, and a foreign policy that disenchanted some of our most ardent allies while gaining us no advantage toward our foes.
During the presidential campaign he touted his opposition to the Iraq War and his experience as a community organizer. Having read Dreams from My Father (which the mainstream press apparently considers a samizdat), it is obvious that Obama considered his community organizing career an enriching experience, but ultimately pointless. The experience: he learned how to convince bureaucrats to fix stuff for you. The pointlessness: after three years, nothing was fixed.
Now he is the chief bureaucrat.
May '10
Re: Re: Lobbing Tarballs
At the risk of engaging in hairsplitting, Mr. Dietl, I would respond that there is a distinction between politics and governing. Politics is a tool of governance, but so are leadership, negotiating skills, psychological insight, and managerial competence. I would agree with Barack Obama that he is a "darn good politician", but because he lacks these other skills -- really has no other skills -- he is a failure at governing, as you correctly observe above.
I would also suggest that we make too close an identification of politics with, well, politics. My day job is at a large corporation, in an intensely political environment. We have our purely political animals, typically fast trackers like our President, whose careers thrive while they accomplish precisely nothing; and we have managers who are knowledgeable, experienced, and skilled -- and are consummate politicians. I don't know of any successful manager at our company who is merely smart and competent. Politics is an essential tool in our environment, but again, it can never be the only tool.