Posted on 11/18/2013 4:54:14 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
President Obama has reached a historic inflection point that poses great peril to his presidency.
He does not have a public relations problem or a political problem. He has a governing problem and a credibility problem.
If he addresses these effectively, which will require changing the management paradigm of his presidency, the public relations and political problems will solve themselves, and his presidency will be rejuvenated.
Let's set aside the last 50 and next 50 news cycles. The core problem plaguing the Obama presidency is that he governs through a tightly controlled and highly centralized White House staff that is overloaded, dangerously insular, short on gravitas, and often hostile to outside advice even from friends and supporters.
Virtually every major player in official Washington believes this. They rarely say it. I just did. No, I do not believe the Obama presidency is finished. No, I do not believe he is a lame duck. If Democrats regain the House and keep the Senate, the president's stock will soar.
No, I do not believe the president is particularly threatened by a Republican Party whose favorable rating is 9 percent in Congress.
Yes, as I wrote in my last column that Obama can rise again but — and this is a huge but — he can only rise again if he is clear-eyed, understanding and forceful about what he needs to do.
Incremental change will not be enough. Bold moves are mandatory. Obama needs a significant White House staff shake-up that brings highly credible and vastly experienced hands to the center of his government, including as White House chief of staff. He should bring in highest-level hands with vast experience such as former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), former presidential counselor David Gergen and former senator and long time Kennedy aide Paul Kirk (D-Mass.).
He might bring in former Secretary of State Colin Powell, perhaps as an outside adviser with a strong operational role to champion programs to create jobs and help the poor and hungry.
These names are illustrative. There are others who could fill these roles. Obama is the president of the United States and commander in chief, and if he asked for help from these people and offered real authority to these people, they are patriotic and would respond.
No, I am not suggesting anyone be fired or treated as a scapegoat. I have high regard for White House chief of staff Denis McDonough, who should always play an invaluable role. I just believe the chief of staff position at this moment would best be held by the highest-level official the president can attract. And I believe, moreover, that vastly experienced hands should be brought in to complement the current staff.
Obama needs to break the paradigm of insularity of his administration and substitute a new paradigm that reaches out and builds new bridges, seeks new advice, brings new credibility and adds new clout to his government.
It would be useful for the president to hold periodic meetings with former White House chiefs of staff to Democratic and Republican presidents alike. Any president would do well by seeking private counsel from James Baker, Howard Baker, Leon Panetta, Erkskine Bowles, Ken Duberstein and John Podesta.
Americans believe, correctly, that their government is dysfunctional. They believe, correctly, that small interests often rule the day in Washington. They question in large numbers the competence and credibility of their president, and they hold in near universal contempt the their Congress.
If Obama reaches out, and reaches higher, and brings in the best people to the center of his government, his presidency would be rejuvenated. He would no longer be viewed as one of the problems. He will would viewed as the leader who offers the solution.
Translation: The author wants to rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic.
Mostly an excuse-piece. Never once is mentioned that the very foundation on which Obama governs is unworkable.
Nor is it mentioned that just about anything they feed to those friends and supporters in the mainstream media (but I repeat myself) is carried exactly as directed.
The man is delusional. Maybe we should encourage him.
...preferably with old Washington retreads. Sorry folks, the only retreads Obama's going to bring in are Chicago thugs.
David Gergen? LMAO, not going to happen.
Colin Powell? He's itching to get back in the game, but he's like Hillary, prefers to be a lone wolf.
Obama's a lame duck now, and there's nothing he can do to change it.
Obama has a woman problem.
He will not, because he cannot, set limits for Kathleen Sebelius and Valerie Jarrett. He had the same problem with Janet Napolitano.
His mother (his only parent) was a leftist weirdo who, like other leftist weirdoes expressed what limited affectional ability she had through politics. You can divorce your wife and you can fire your employees, but you can’t get rid of your mother.
He will not put a person of male gender (see, I can talk like that, too) in a position of authority over Jarrett or Sebelius, because he cannot.
Oh, it’s workable. Obama is doing everything exactly as he planned.
This piece is pathetic. It’s not even laughable.
His advice to Obama is to bring in a passel of pro-abortion people. In other words, people who are all as evil as Obama himself.
Obama is wicked and stupid. He is the puppet of people who are wicked and smart. Or at least, I thought they were smart until October 1st.
Obama will learn nothing. He will alter nothing. He is too evil and too psychologically damaged to do anything other than what he has been doing for more than forty years. Lie. Then lie some more.
I look forward to his return to Man’s Country.
He's surrounded by lots of people of male gender. What he can't do is work closely with people of the male sex. Except at Man's Country.
BIG mea culpa from his column of a couple of days ago……this guy is a real inside the beltway liberal idiot dolt…..
A narcissist isn’t going to fix a problem of insularity. Period. Budowsky is day dreaming.
The Hill needs a democrat in power to save their own jobs.
Gergen? ROTFL.
I originally drafted my comment with "masculine gender".
I don't know if "Obama" is bisexual or not, and the fact that one of his formative experiences was with a "sex rebel" is interesting, but his relationships with Jarret and now Sebelius are not normal for a chief executive.
Now why on earth would Erskine Bowles be interested?
Obama asked Bowles and Simpson to draw up ideas to fix the economy then didn't do anything Bowles said.
The author of this piece doesn't get that Obama doesn't work well with people so bringing more on board won't help. Obama thinks he and Jarrett are smart enough to run everything and disdains anyone else's advice.
Obama’s problem is Obama.
Leni
When the enemy is shooting itself in BOTH feet.......
Don’t stop ‘em, send more ammunition.
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