Posted on 06/06/2010 5:16:42 AM PDT by tobyhill
Barack Obama has done more to expand government than any president since Lyndon B. Johnson, but the Gulf oil crisis is testing his ability to master the federal bureaucracy in a way no other crisis has — with decidedly mixed results.
The first president since John F. Kennedy to take office without executive branch experience, Obama has struggled for the past month to find the right balance between micro- and macro-management as the Deepwater Horizon spill has grown into an environmental cataclysm and political disaster.
People who have worked closely with Obama say he doesn’t think like a bureaucrat, is far more interested in changing the way Washington works than in understanding its machinations and isn’t excited by the kind of gears-of-government reforms that interested a previous generation of Democrats, particularly Al Gore.
The Gulf crisis has shed light on the strengths and weaknesses of Obama’s unique management style, which relies on a combination of his own intellect, a small circle of trusted advisers and a larger group of outside experts. But it’s also driven home a more generic lesson all presidents learn sooner or later: Administrations are defined, fairly or not, by their capacity to control stagnant backwater agencies, in Obama’s case the Minerals Management Service, which failed to detect problems with the Deepwater Horizon well.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
Headline should be, “Oil Spill Exposes Obama’s Management Style,” which might be best described as “party-and-snipe” with a generous portion of finger-pointing and tongue-wagging.
First of all, it seems as if more was done early, this crap wouldn’t be on Florida’s shores.
and it will certainly help the employment numbers. /s
Oil Pollution Act of 1990 giving POTUS complete responsibility for immediate action in cleaning up an oil spill.
OPA, among other things, amended Section 311 of the federal Clean Water Act. Section 311 now provides in part that:
(A) If a discharge, or a substantial threat of a discharge, of oil or a hazardous substance from a vessel, offshore facility, or onshore facility is of such a size or character as to be a substantial threat to the public health or welfare of the United States (including but not limited to fish, shellfish, wildlife, other natural resources, and the public and private beaches and shorelines of the United States), the President shall direct all Federal, State, and private actions to remove the discharge or to mitigate or prevent the threat of the discharge.
(B) In carrying out this paragraph, the President may, without regard to any other provision of law governing contracting procedures or employment of personnel by the Federal Government
(i) remove or arrange for the removal of the discharge, or mitigate or prevent the substantial threat of the discharge; and
(ii) remove and, if necessary, destroy a vessel discharging, or threatening to discharge, by whatever means are available.”
I see it more as he's struggled to figure out how this beautiful system he wants to set up is going to work when it goes from the faculty lounge to the real world.
Libs have all these great theories that never bother with messy reality, and we're seeing how that works right now. Government's job isn't to fix this problem, but he's going to use this to show why the government SHOULD take over this industry, because that's all he can see in this--government run by theorists should control all those silly people below them.
None except ducking, the buck never got there it is lost in space.
Real leaders don’t finger-point, they lead by example.
So judging by Obama’s bizarre “finger-pointing” press conferences recently, the objective conclusion has to be - Barack Obama is not a leader.
He can talk up a storm, but he can’t act decisively. The clock is ticking on this bumbling Administration.
zero management style:
Give a speech
Blame someone else
Form a study group
Go for a 747 ride
He probably needs another vacation after this. Maybe back to Hawaii as soon as school lets out.
A large part the problem with Obama’s “management style” is that he’s not a very bright man. Take him off the teleprompter and his real “intellect” becomes obvious.
Plus he’s inflexible and thin skinned.
He’s got to know that he’s way over his head.
In Politico's small world, I guess a "political operative" is an entirely different species than a "political guru." And certainly, the Hussein regime is devoid of control freaks as even the most casual observer can see.
Yet another thinly disguised apologia masquerading as "analysis."
According to Alinsky, community organizers are not supposed to be leaders, so why should the Organizer in Chief suddenly become one? Of course, community organizers also should not have huge egos, so 0bama is a failure on that front as well.
Making love to a teleprompter is not a management style.
In Liberal Speak, "decidedly mixed results" means: abject failure.
“remove and, if necessary, destroy a vessel discharging, or threatening to discharge, by whatever means are available.”
BP understandably doesn’t want to forego its huge investment in its well, thus nuking it shut has been ruled out in favor of a strategy that will allow oil to continue to spill at least through August and possibly through December. This suggests a potential conflict between what is in the public interest and what is in BP’s private interest.
It’s clear from this statute that the president has always had the authority to simply order the well nuked shut. Thus, apart from the fact that they blew the opportunity to burn off much of the oil in the first few days, Obama has CHOSEN not to adopt a strategy to cut off the oil flow expeditiously using a method already successfully demonstrated by the Russians (nuking the leaking well shut). Is it just possible that BP’s sizable campaign contributions to him have influenced his judgment on this?
Where are the congressional hearings demanding that the president explain this choice he has made?
Way is NO way; Style is NO style!
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