George W. Bush’s detractors routinely sneered at his alleged “incompetence”. (Many of the same people then credited him with enough cunning to fool all the world’s intelligence agencies in pursuit of deep-laid, sinister goals.) The quality of his performance is now an issue for future historians. The quality of his successor’s concerns us here and now – and unhappily is becoming all too evident.
The strange saga of Chas Freeman was today’s episode (and didn’t his withdrawal letter put the vanilla icing on the case against choosing him as overseer of the National Intelligence Estimate?). Hillary Clinton’s botched “reset button” joke was yesterday’s. Before that, we had Prime Minister Brown’s botched White House visit with its embarrassing exchange of official gifts – and the brief embrace of Durban II – and the clumsy letter offering to sell out Poland’s and Romania’s governments in return for Tsar Vladimir’s good will. And did I mention the failure, in the midst of a major financial crisis, to fill the top 11 positions under the Secretary of the Treasury – after woefully misjudging the abilities of the Secretary himself? The list goes on and on. It’s hard to keep track, nor does one really want to.
Ineptitude bears fruit. It would have been hard to get off to a worse start if the Obama Administration were trying to fail. At home, the Dow has fallen over 2,500 points since Election Day. That’s after today’s rally (which we may hope is a sign that stock prices are at last finding a bottom, though it could be just a dead-cat bounce). Abroad, there’s not a single piece of good news. The only zone of conflict where America’s position hasn’t deteriorated since January 20th is Iraq, the one place where the new Administration’s policy, as opposed to its rhetoric, is almost identical to President Bush’s.
Looking back, the symptoms appeared during the Presidential campaign. An admiring press kept praising Team Obama’s brilliance, but how much brilliance did it take to win with the help of media adulation, the most overwhelming financial advantage since Richard Nixon creamed George McGovern and a major economic downturn? What is significant in retrospect, as evidence of the Obama management style, are little flaws in the machine, such as the chaotic Vice Presidential selection process, the frequent surfacing and repudiation of advisors with peculiar views, and the absence of standard security precautions in the on-line money-raising operation. Those, not the splendidly teleprompted speeches, turned out to be the pointers to the future.
What are the cause and cure? We have to assume – otherwise, there is no hope at all for the next four years – that the President is capable of learning on the job and mastering its day-to-day demands. But is he willing to? His current line, as in a speech today, is that his helter-skelter approach, paying more urgent attention to pre-school education than to the health of the banking system, is just fine. That attitude, buttressed by absurd historical analogies, hints that he doesn’t perceive any problem. Or maybe he blames all negative developments on Rush Limbaugh.
Needless to say, concentration isn’t enough in and of itself. Let me suggest a few other things that the President might consider:
Stop bowing to Congressional Democrats. Even a President as weak as Jimmy Carter presented his own plans to Congress; he didn’t meekly accept whatever came to him from Capitol Hill.
Get rid of the Chicago Way mindset. Firing the machine hacks would be a good beginning. Any past Presidential chief of staff who expended time and energy on a cause as paltry as the anti-Limbaugh jihad would have been gone in an instant.
Read and digest the other side’s arguments. If they aren’t persuasive, argue against them rather than attack straw men. Remember that “I won” doesn’t refute anything.
Stop blaming and vilifying George W. Bush. Proving that he did things wrong doesn’t mitigate current blunders.
Realize that an incoming President doesn’t know all about the business of the executive branch. Not even the most intelligent man can improvise the details of a state visit, and that is only one of a multitude of mysteries.
Spend less time orating and more reading. When the President seems to think that the Great Depression and World War II took place simultaneously, it’s evident that his foundation of general knowledge is shaky. That shallowness is dangerous in itself and a poor reflection on the nation that elected him. (Historical stumbles in a speech devoted to ideas for improving educational standards induce special cringing.)
Mocking the White House stooge routines is, I’ll confess, a great deal of fun. If only it were just a clown show put on for our amusement. But it’s not, and it’s of vital importance to all Americans that this downward spiral stop.
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