Posted on 03/30/2015 9:25:20 AM PDT by Kaslin
The lack of it is not a positive, but it can be overcome. Here's how.
The entry of Ted Cruz into the presidential race touched off an interesting discussion about the relevance of experience, especially governing experience and executive experience. Some said Cruz is nothing more than a conservative Barack Obama because he is a first-term senator with little executive experience. Others countered that all the executive experience in the world wouldn’t have made Obama a good president because he is so wrong ideologically.
As someone who once ran for president because I thought my experience as a business executive could make me an effective leader, let me suggest that in some ways both arguments are correct.
I think Ted Cruz could be a good president because he is bold, decisive and principled. That doesn’t mean executive experience wouldn’t be helpful to him, but he could overcome the lack of it if he got some good advice about leading the executive branch – and if he trusted the right people.
This is one of the reasons Obama got in trouble early on. It’s true that executive experience would not have made him a good president, not only because his ideology is wrong but also because he has neither the temperament nor the perspective to be an effective leader. With Obama, it’s always all about Obama, and executive experience would not have changed that because it’s fundamentally who he is.
But he might have spared himself some unnecessary headaches if he knew a little something about leadership. I commented when he first took office that he was making a huge mistake by having more than 60 people report to him directly. No one can supervise that many direct reports. Even the most talented executives only try to deal with maybe 10, and most prefer four to six.
Failing to understand this fairly basic management principle put Obama in a position to quickly lose control of what was happening in the executive branch. (I don’t think he’s very interested in the details, either, and management experience can’t make you care.) Because he clearly doesn’t understand how to establish goals and metrics for success, or about how to empower people to succeed, Obama ended up with a fairly chaotic executive branch that was often saying one thing and doing another, and often had many people moving in different directions.
Now conservatives might say, “Good! We didn’t want Obama to be successful with his agenda!” I understand that. But you do want a conservative president to be successful, if he is constantly dealing with internal squabbles and negative news stories that arise from operational problems in the executive branch, it will hamper his effectiveness.
Since Cruz has less experience in this area than, say, Scott Walker or Jeb Bush, it would be important for him as president to have a very strong vice president and chief of staff who could offer strengths in these areas and could help keep things running smoothly. But! It would be a mistake for Cruz or any other prospective president not to pay attention to the inner-workings of the executive branch, thinking, “I’m the big-picture guy. I’m not the detail guy.”
You have to be a detail guy, at least to the extent that you have a reasonable understanding of what’s going on and you can be confident things are operating according to your vision. That doesn’t mean you micromanage. You empower your people and you trust them, but you still have to pay close attention to everything from the numbers to the performance metrics and the issues that are cropping up among your people – because there will be some.
I would rather have a principled conservative with no management experience than a liberal with lots of it. And some people have good instincts for leadership even if they don’t have the specific experience you’d look for.
But experience is never a weakness, and those who support Cruz for president shouldn’t argue that it is. Cruz should acknowledge that his relative lack of executive management experience is a challenge for which he needs a strategy, and he should tell us what it is. (He’s welcome to borrow from this column if he thinks it would help!) I’m sure the candidates who have more experience will tout it as an advantage – as well you’d expect them to. And if it helps them to be more effective in leading the nation in the right direction – as opposed to the direction Obama is taking us – so much the better.
But the ability to manage well – whether you get it from your own experience or from good instincts and talented people around you – is crucial to the success of any presidency.
Isn’t this the same argument that persuaded Obama to hire Biden as VP and Hillary as State Department go-to-gal?
Ted Cruz certainly has had a chance to see exactly how not to be president by watching Obama.
What was Abraham Lincoln’s “executive experience” before being elected President? Just asking.
Experience? The Left is actually talking about that?
What a laugh. Mitt Romney, Capitalist Smurf in Chief, had fabulous experience. If you wanted a great manager who could run a giant money guzzling bureaucracy, there’s been no one like him in the last 5 decades.
Didn’t do him a damn bit of good.
This is all a Red Herring. Up against a woman who is a congenital liar, mainly known for being married to the 2nd President ever impeached?
Please.
Follow the Constitution!! I think that is all anyone really needs.
“But experience is never a weakness,”
Nor is it necessarily a strength.
It can mean you are bought & paid for
Boehner
McConnell
Romney
McCain
Flake
I’m still batting 1,000
Case closed.
As a Solicitor General, he had charge of a whole group of lawyers. That’s like herding cats. I know, I used to work for lawyers. They all have egos that barely fit into the room.
Since Cruz never had any issues as the boss of lawyers, I’d say he had more than the skills necessary to be a President.
And, Cruz has no ideological issues - he’s well-known as true patriot - strong for America, her military, her people. Obama has none of those qualities - so to say Cruz is just like Obama is ARROGANT STUPIDITY.
The only response that he needs to use is:
“I have the same amount of experience that our current president had at the time he ran for president. Since you didn’t have a problem with his “lack of executive experience” why are you having a problem with mine?”
Reminds me on the lesson Lincoln learned he had a good bunch of Generals that were great organizers, but they couldn’t win any battles. Now Grant wasn’t the greatest organizer, but he could win battles.
Cruz is a fast learner. I do not fear his, so-called, lack of executive experience.
Cruz actually has quite a bit more, IMHO.
Actually Mitt Romney was a failed one term governor that was dumped with no chance of reelection and 34% approval and a record of destruction and liberalism.
He was terrible as an elected executive office holder.
Wasn’t he the head Legal Eagle in Texas, managing something like several hundred other lawyers? Thought I read that somewhere.
Racists. How dare they insinuate that a minority is too stupid and inexperienced to become president?
“TED CRUZ: Well, unlike Barack Obama, I was not a community organizer before I was elected to the senate. I spent 5 1/2 years as the solicitor general of Texas, the chief lawyer for Texas in front of the U.S. Supreme Court. I supervised and led every year before the state of Texas in a 4,000 agency with over 700 lawyers. “
Cruz has the character, moral compass, love of country, and respect for rule of law and Constitution. He’s no community organizer. This is what is making the left freak out, Obama has so screwed everything up...they know the time is ripe for a man just like Ted Cruz, an adult in charge to fix the child’s mess he made.
That arrogant pos should have listened to Joe Biden when Biden told him during the 2008 rat debates that the presidency is not a subject that could be studied. AAfter more than 6 years he still hasn’t learned
Why would he want to do that? *rme*
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