OK democrats, it’s time we join in the circle and start sharing our feelings. The Obama Administration is a bad manager. Putting aside broken websites, unprecedented obstructionism, and a dash of crazy from the far right – objectively speaking, President Obama and his people are not blessed with keen managerial skills.
To top it off, in a single day we have the head of the VA and the White House press secretary both taking their leave and ducking out the door. Even though Jay Carney’s departure was planned, the timing makes this Friday’s news dump in American history a pretty depressing one for those who were hoping for more successes from the Obama Administration. Truth is The Truth, we can’t turn away from it just because it’s a gory scene: President Obama is a bad manager.
Obama’s second term, in particular, has been riddled with flops and missteps. Democrats and MSNBC can point fingers all they want at the Republican Party’s internal fracturing and obstruction, but that variable doesn’t apply to the entire list of management bungles of the Obama Administration’s second term. That Congress is a total mess doesn’t (or at least shouldn’t) impact the Administration’s ability to do what it needs to do on policy that’s already been passed and funded.
Democrats generally don’t blame President Obama for all the morons in red states who didn’t expand Medicaid, but we do for the President’s horrendous job at selling the ACA. Democrats blame Obama for not educating people who didn’t (and still don’t) understand the ACA, and for not seeing or sensing that something was terribly wrong with the online exchange long before its originally scheduled launch. However, unlike the most die-hard tea partiers, most democrats don’t blame the President for everything from Tequila Sunrise to Waterloo Sunset. Most of us (including “regular” republicans) understand grey and nuance – but democrats and liberals out there who are still whole-heartedly blaming republicans for all the problems of the Obama Administration, well… y’all need to get over yourselves.
Obama supporters need to be the people holding the Obama Administration accountable for its failures. If you don’t, the country will only get more mediocrity and disappointment through the end of Obama’s second term. If you pointed a finger at Governor Chris Christie, then you need to point a finger at President Obama as well. Fair is fair.
What happened? It’s as if most of the drive and Sparks have left the building; like the Obama Administration used up all its vigor in the first term and doesn’t have anything left in the tank to finish the game. Personally, I can’t imagine how difficult it would be to endure all the balderdash that has been thrown at the President. In many ways I admire his and his team’s ability to not give up altogether in the face of the craziest of the extreme right wing, but that admiration doesn’t offset failures in areas that are unaffected by the craziness of modern polarized politics. Somewhere, probably in many places, the balls were dropped. Whether that be people lower on the ladder messing up, or President Obama not making his people feel as though they should tell him everything no matter what it is – management failures, organizational failures, Obama failures.
The President is not even 5% as bad as the far right wing rants, but he sure isn’t as good as his die-hard supporters believe, either. Not now, anyway. Vision only takes an organization so far; that’s even true of leadership. At the end of the day we do need good managers.
Mr. President, you need to get the spark back and start working the program. The country needs to see that democrats CAN MANAGE, not just push and pay for empathetic policies. I’ve quit working on two political campaigns for democrats for that very reason: put more than 5 democrats in a room, and you can’t get them to ever accomplish a dinner oder. Nancy Pelosi is the only person who has ever been able to whip democrats into shape – no wonder she’s always a target of the far right.
Sadly, since October of last year, the stereotype that democrats are incapable of managing anything has been proven true due to many bumblings of the Obama Administration. We need you, Mr. President, to prove the stereotype wrong – and you don’t have much time left in your tenure, so let’s get to it, OK? Democrats aren’t just empathetic, bleeding-heart liberals… democrats can get ‘er done, too. Nancy is stuck in a hall full of nitwits, so it’s up to you Mr. President to prove everyone wrong.
