The "They Did It" Presidency

Victor, I have to say the first six weeks of the Age of the Hopeychange have surprised me. I expected it to bad, but I didn't expect it to be so incompetent. Not because I had any expectations of President Obama's executive skills: As I said back in the fall re the comparisons with Governor Palin, Barack ain't run nuthin' but his mouth. This is the first real job he's had where you're supposed to show up at nine in the morning and make decisions.

So I had no expectations about his executive competency. But I assumed he had folks around him who could take care of that kind of stuff — that he'd be the smiley-face hopeychange frontman on an ideologically disastrous but ruthlessly efficient team. I figured he'd have a Deputy Assistant Associate Secretary of whatever who'd know what the form was for a prime ministerial visit by a close ally, and an Associate Deputy Assistant Secretary who wouldn't compound the gaffes by telling Fleet Street who cares about the Brits anyway. I expected he'd have an Assistant Associate Deputy Secretary who'd know that Russo-American relations weren't the proper forum for lame prop gags, and a Deputy Associate Assistant Secretary who, once the decision were taken to go ahead with the lame prop gag, would at least be able to translate correctly one single word from English to Russian.

What happened? Where's his team? It's not like 2005, when the Senate Dems were holding up Condi and vetoing Bolton. Senate Republicans would be happy just to rubberstamp one big photocopied [INSERT NAME OF NOMINEE HERE] form. But, as many have noted, the soi-disant "smoothest transition in history" ground to a halt the moment Bush flew off to Crawford.

Well, these are probably the two most important foreign policy relations that we have: the UK and Russia. And they managed to screw up both of them.

Kennedy started his time in office by screwing up at the Bay of Pigs, and he spent the rest of his presidency trying to fix that mistake. It is NOT a good idea to get off on the wrong foot with major powers and close allies.

Meantime, Obozo is too busy buttering up Cuba, Iran, and Venezuela to notice that he has a problem.

Being President of the US is a job like none other. One might be groomed over the years with education and experiences that make one more competent at running a staff, understanding negotiating, foreign affairs, public administration, and the functioning of government, but essentially no job really prepares one for this office.

Few Presidents come to the scene with the experiences of George H. Bush, probably one of the most qualified and experienced Presidents ever to have held the office at least in the post war era. Unfortunately some come to the scene with a thin resume and lack the general skills required to really be successful. Feel good politics, pandering, being a good orator and looking good in a suit can bring one a lot of fame and popularity at least for a short while, but it surely does not prepare one for a position that requires true leadership to excel, and at least sound management skills and a solid understanding of foreign affairs, business and economics, and our security apparatuses to be marginally successful. Obama will have a steep learning curve, and one can only hope that those around him can carry this weight, that some of his own words were simple political campaign rhetoric that he will now distance himself from, now that he has what he wanted.

A man with no background in any way associated with national security or defense, no executive experience or running of a staff, no business experience nor education in that direction, no foreign relations experience, a young man that has limited life experiences, a junior Senator that spent over half of his time campaigning for President; he is the least qualified person to have ever held this office, for sure in the post war era and probably since inception of our nation. Pretty, well spoken with a law degree, on the majority side on every issue, very smooth and comfortable, he won an election where form trumped function, where endorsements by Oprah and talking nice to Ellen DeGeneres meant something. The greatest responsibilities in life, the greatest positions of authority one will ever have are often given to one and require no license, training, education or any qualifications to speak of. Anyone can have kids, and nearly anyone can vote, and few understand the real gravity of their choices and responsibilities when exercising these freedoms. Likewise, there is no litmus test to be a President other than the minimal Constitutional requirements. The fact that our current President would fail any national agency questionnaire and be denied a T/S clearance because of his self admitted drug use yet is now Commander in Chief and head of all the security institutions does not strike anyone as odd. Like teenagers having children, you have someone who really isn’t ready for the role.

But, as many have noted, the soi-disant "smoothest transition in history" ground to a halt the moment Bush flew off to Crawford.

Yeah, I caught that one too. I sort of assumed that the transition would be similar to the Clinton one - a lot of the same people were involved - you remember, a bunch of overheated college sophomores suddenly handed the reins to the free world and acting like it was a frat party.

This one isn't even that effective. The government is essentially rudderless while Pelosi and Reid back the dump trucks up to the treasury and the rest of the House crew concentrate on show trials for their old scapegoats. Amazing. Hillary is proving as much out of her element as one might expect for someone with essentially no foreign policy experience whatever. But most amazing of all nobody on either of their staffs seems capable of plugging the dike while the others rally. And the rest of the world isn't going to sit idling while these naifs try to get their feet under them.

I blame it in part on the mental model prevalent among the progressives that an election is a sort of athletic contest that they won and that what comes next is the cheering and the training for the next game. Wrong model. What comes next is the work, and they weren't ready, and they still aren't. And that isn't Bush's fault.

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