Politics
President Barack Obama addresses the House Democratic Caucus Issues Conference in Williamsburg, Virginia. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The last few weeks there have been many articles written on why new legislation on guns did not get passed. Now we are going to watch the Senate attempt to pass new legislation on immigration.
Entrepreneurs are a rare breed. They are people with a wealth of ideas or sometimes one brilliant idea that starts out as a thought that eventually evolves into a company, product, non-profit, etc. Sometimes no matter how great the idea is the concept fails. It is not the idea that failed but the execution. Many times someone else might end up taking that concept and because they are better at execution making it work. There are so many mountains to climb and successes to achieve at many stages of a company. It isn't all about the idea.
I do believe success has a better chance with leaders of a vision that can get down in the weeds with each top manager in their company to nurture, challenge and motivate them to execute on the vision. That energy and leadership bleeds into an organization from top down. Each company has its own culture and vibe and that comes from the top. Certainly a leader also has to take time to think out of the weeds in order to see the big picture or otherwise you end up with weeds.
I have been a Democrat since I was born. When I think of Obama as an entrepreneur this is what I see. He is great at marketing the vision to the masses but he isn't very good at marketing his vision to his company. That company is the Senate and Congress. When companies grow and the entrepreneur who originally founded the idea isn't able to move up another mountain many times the board brings in another candidate who might be better suited to run the company at the stage that it is at. I believe it is important to keep that entrepreneur engaged because they see the big picture. In our Government the founding fathers were the entrepreneurs who wrote the constitution that set up the foundation of our country. They are obviously not running the country anymore but many CEO's (aka Presidents) have come in to run this organization for 4 and sometimes 8 year runs. The board is essentially the voting public. It is up each President to move the company forward based on the original principles set forth. Some do a better job than others.
I do believe in Obamas vision for change. The changes in the private sector are so way ahead of our government that it is creating problems. We can begin with education. 20 years ago we should have started STEM curriculum in all junior high schools as the supply of jobs is exceeding the demand because there are not enough kids graduating with the skills for the jobs available. That is causing the price of these jobs to go way up. Obama has set forth a vision that he is simply not executing on. I am pretty sure our forefathers were happy for everyone to have a musket because there wasn't huge law enforcement and the country was very spread out but if George Washington came back today to see the arsenal of guns including the automatic shotguns with magazines that can fire off 150 rounds in seconds I bet he would be aghast.
It is not pretty how our Government works and perhaps that is why Obama isn't getting down in the weeds with our Senators. Yet this company has been at it for a long time and I am not so sure that preaching to the people who agree with what he says is how to get bills passed. When you come into a company as the President you have to understand how a company works to get things done. It is the same in Government. Obama has been at it for more than four years and I would hope that he would figure it out sooner than later that he has to work in the system as ugly as it is to get his vision executed on or we will all end up no better off than we were when he took the job.
Comments (Archived):
I love this analogy- “When companies grow and the entrepreneur who originally founded the idea isn’t able to move up another mountain many times the board brings in another candidate who might be better suited to run the company at the stage that it is at.” But politics aside, I haven’t seen this happen too much recently despite seeing some startup companies struggle in their evolution.If the company grows, but the CEO doesn’t, that’s an issue. If the company’s issues rise, but the CEO doesn’t see it, that’s an issue.In politics, the traditional way of getting things done and pushing forward is to surround yourself with the right people that can help to make that change happen. It’s like herding cats, and not about just shouting from the rooftops.
It is like herding cats.
+1
The system is definitely not working
I think it was designed to have a shelf life and that revolution is/was always inevitable…society is def. flowing towards the edges of every extreme as ‘working within the system’ begins to fail for more and more people every day.I don’t think it’s a political party issue as much as it’s an evolutionary one…meeting the basic needs of the people no longer need as much government involvement as it once did, and yet we actually have more professional government than ever before…it’s really no longer ‘for the people’ or ‘by the people’…and so it’s only a matter of time before ‘the people’ get fed up enough to self-correct the real issue…
Maybe the tech world will figure out how to get the people to make changes. Certainly the tech world is changing banking and loans. Who would have thought
This is very true…I think tech. can certainly already help to organize voices and opinions…and the solution to democracy probably lies somewhere behind the idea of the open web…but it will still require a large amount of action in the physical world before I think it can all take shape…It’s an interesting transition to be alive and somewhat self-aware of as it starts to take shape…my kids already have a completely different understanding and set of expectations on freedom, knowledge, rights, communication, and how policy *should* work…I’m looking forward to seeing their generation really bring about and enforce those ideals as they see fit…
Or, maybe it is.
Unfortunately, President Obama can’t do the hiring and the firing in his “company”.
But the government isn’t a company with a goal of uniform success in the sense that the Republicans don’t want Obama to succeed, even if success means moving the country forward. When the founders created a two party system replete with checks and balances, they hoped to put limits on power and to make executing from the top difficult. In turn, we have somehow gotten to this.I’m not sure the problem is with the president. The reps we elect seem to bare most of the fault. If we were serious about change, we’d start insisting that our representatives promise to work across the aisle to enact x,y, and z. We’d make them vow to this publicly in hopes of accountability. But we don’t, and part of the problem is that not all of the country wants a “progressive agenda.” Many of those voters are the ones electing the candidates that feel their hands are tied, For the rest of us, we should do better and start getting involved in government more. To those who give donations, which many of us do, we should stop until we get real, hard promises from the people that want the money.
First, full disclosure I am a registered Independent with Republican leanings. I voted for President Obama in 2008 because in the middle of a financial crisis I could not vote for John McCain (POW, Retired Navy Captain, Silver Star Receiptant) who had been indicted in connection with the S&L Crisis.http://www.latimes.com/business/in…I think your political analyze is the best I have seen (taking all the emotions, viewpoints,feelings etc out of the picture) the President is just not that good of a Politician. He can’t figure out what Congress, the American people or Supreme Court will buy into. Not what is right or wrong, black and white what will be acceptable in the gray areas where everybody can be happy.Healthcare, immigration, education, the budget, foreign policy etc by all accounts he is ineffective at.Why is he ineffective? Part of this is his own life inexperience ( not political party affiliation) He has an awesome educational background but not much of a track record ANYWHERE, IN ANY FIELDthe other part is a weak team.When all this started besides Hillary Clinton, Gen. Shenseski ( I think he was at the wrong position at the VA) Robert Gates and possibly Tim Geithner, it was a pretty dodgy team when came to national and international experience.It’s better now but we are suffering through some gridlock.The Republicans are so fractured and rudderless they CAN’T help the President make up the difference on their side to get anything done.Meanwhile, the American people are failing in their duty to help govern by not interacting with their representatives. So it’s not just Washington failing.
no doubt we are all failing.
We will have to agree to disagree on this one. I don’t agree with the way Obama wants to move the country. Knew him as a state senator here in Illinois and had many chances to donate and interact with him. I never donated-actually donated to Hillary in hopes she would win the Dem nomination in 2008.I know many people from both sides of the aisle that know him and his wife.If Obama wanted to run the government like a private company, he’d take out a meat cleaver and privatize a lot of the government. The point is, he doesn’t. He is a dyed in the wool big government, lover of unions and is consistently trying to make everything “fair”. His fair might not be your version of fair, or my version of fair. That is the point, it’s normative, not positive.He is a brilliant campaigner, but a terrible CEO. I’d never back a company run by a person like Obama. No execution and he takes up the wrong issues. In 2008, he took up Obamacare instead of concentration on fiscal issues that burn to this day. Then it was gun control. His policies have a tin ear. He may be book smart, but he isn’t street smart and he isn’t one of the “common men”. He doesn’t understand them. Reagan and Clinton intuitively understood America.Perhaps worse, Obama and his administration deliberately covered up how they handled Benghazi. That’s poor leadership.My family was full of Democrats. I was until the 80’s. Jimmy Carter and Reagan changed that. Reagan was one of the most pro entrepreneur Presidents we have ever had. Today the Democratic Party is big labor, big government, closer to European socialism than the party it started out to be-for the little guy against the big guys.The Republicans are certainly not perfect by any means. But, they have a much bigger libertarian streak that if mainstreamed will be better for the country. Certain political leaders are emerging which might unleash it; Rand Paul, Bobby Jindahl and Scott Walker. Their first inclination isn’t social issues. Their first inclination is fiscal conservatism and individual liberty.America needs immigration reform badly. I am extremely pro immigration. America is the greatest country in the world, and I want to give everyone we can the opportunity to thrive in it.