Obama The Answer Man

A devoted Obama staffer explains to the WaPo that Obama is all wise and all knowing; also, all-talking:

Two days after his damaging defeat in Pennsylvania last month, Barack Obama gathered his wife and senior campaign staff around the dining room table of his Chicago home.

For two hours after dinner, Barack and Michelle Obama, campaign manager David Plouffe, message man David Axelrod, deputy campaign manager Steve Hildebrand, communications chiefs Robert Gibbs and Dan Pfeiffer, family friend and Chicago business heavyweight Valerie Jarrett, and scheduling chief Alyssa Mastromonaco hashed over the presidential campaign's history, looked at the upcoming primaries and decided how the candidate would approach the coming two weeks. Obama wanted to get away from the sniping, including his own, and get back to the approachable, hopeful campaign of last winter's long sojourn in Iowa.

"It wasn't like 'Let's have a discussion.' It was 'One, two, three, four, here's what we're going to do,' " a staffer said. "When things don't go well, he doesn't yell and scream. He's very prescriptive. Everybody understands this isn't about having a discussion. He's got 99 percent of the voting shares. There's no point in taking a vote."

What?  Sure, there is no point in taking a vote, but that hardly means that there is no point in having a discussion - presumably these strategists and advisers are intelligent adults with possibly-useful perspectives and an effective leader would draw them out and explore alternatives.

As to the idea that Barack doesn't yell and scream, he simply tells people what to do - well, that would be fabulous if he were running for fire marshall in an office building, but the President of the United States can't possibly be expected to know the answer to every question that will arise during his Administration.  Despite whatever this staffer may have experienced professionally or personally, there are plenty of effective leaders who can handle adversity without yelling or screaming while also promoting creative discussion of alternative strategies.

I assume this staffer meant to be providing fawning praise of the Messiah, but as an example of Obama's leadership style it is not encouraging.

Comments

[sbw]

"He's got 99 percent of the voting shares. There's no point in taking a vote."

So it's admirable for Obama and a telling criticism of Bush. Yep, Bush lives in a bubble. Ron Suskind, in the NY Times Magazine wrote a hit piece called "Without a Doubt". My observation at the time:

Suskind's whole article hangs on accusing President George Bush of "easy certainty" that comes from faith, which, for Suskind, must be irrational. Suskind's own "easy certainty" is that he can bank on convincing voters that Bush is driven by messianic fervor. Then Suskind won't have to look at the rational underpinnings that support Bush's positions on issues. Suskind's is a lazy argument.

I am embarrassed for the field of journalism, and tired of having to repeat it.

[hit and run]

Well the left tells us all the time that the highest form of patriotism is to have your dissent stifled.

Right?

[Buford Gooch]

So, Obama is now his own campaign manager? Why not just dispense with top staff and just go with Barrack and Michelle?

[centralcal]

99%! Well, that's a relief. Now we know who is responsible for his late/lame response to all sorts of debacles - Wright, Ayers and Michelle.

[clarice]

You beat me to it , sbw.

[Danube of Thought]

Rick Moran at American Thinker:

"She is the biggest loose cannon in either campaign. She's got a chip on her shoulder the size of a redwood and an overweening sense of entitlement that makes her one of the more unattractive advocates for Barack Obama - despite the fact that she's his wife.

"Michelle Obama is a disaster waiting to happen. Unless Obama sends her on a very long cruise or tries hiding her in a closet until after the election, there is little doubt in most observer's minds that she will eventually, detonate a bomb or two that will require major damage control."

[MikeS]

I, for one, am relieved to know that Brocko is not dependent on the advice of a bunch of experts.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Okay, this guy is officially beginning to freak me out.

[MayBee]

I, for one, am relieved to know that Brocko is not dependent on the advice of a bunch of experts.

To be honest, with some of the experts he has surrounding him, I'm happy to hear he isn't listening to them.

[kim]

Right, ChuckCo, his hope and change is part and parcel with his Christianity and his new found patriotism. This is very old style autocrat. Devious and dangerous old style.
===========================

[Paul Zrimsek]

Really makes our prospective National Conversation on Race snap into perspective, doesn't it?

[Pofarmer]

Really makes our prospective National Conversation on Race snap into perspective, doesn't it?

Would that be the one that ends with reparations?

I'm feeling more thankful for the 2nd ammendment all the time.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Look, I really try not to fall for the usual cant (or Kant, but that's another story), but I'm beginning to suspect that the Obamas are telling us exactly what his program will be.

Obey.

Consider: "Barack Obama will require you to work. He is going to demand that you shed your cynicism. That you put down your division. That you come out of your isolation. That you move out of your comfort zones. That you push yourselves to be better. And that you engage. Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual; uninvolved, uninformed." ... as quoted on the previous thread.

Consider the demands for unity --- and the apparent insistence that we unify, not behind an idea, but behind a person. The constant theme that criticism is a "distraction" that isn't legitimate.

I think he's running for Caudillo.

[ben]

Off topic, but some good news from Rasmussen:
"The survey also found that 37% of voters believe the federal government needs more tax revenue to fund important national programs such as highway repairs and health care reform. Forty-six percent (46%) disagree.

Democrats, by a 46% to 35% margin, say that new revenue is needed. Republicans, by a 59% to 27% margin, disagree. Among voters not affiliated with either major party, 34% believe more the government needs more revenue while 50% disagree.

Fifty-six percent (56%) of all voters are at least somewhat worried that the next President will raise taxes too much and harm the economy. That figure includes 77% of Republicans, 59% of unaffiliated voters, and 39% of Democrats."

So here is something McCain can run on. Start on the 60% of unaffiliated voters who are against raising taxes.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Kim, honey: "Charlie". Thanks. "Chuck" is something that ups.

[Soylent Red]

By virtue of my current assignment I have been able to get some perspective on this general subject.

Historically, "visionary" leadership is rarely an indicator of success. Success occurs at the operational and tactical level by guys who effectively leverage individual and shared wisdom. Put another way, the guy at the top is rarely the guy who comes up with the best plan, it's the lower level guys, and then only when "groupthink" is avoided.

If Joint military can get on board with this idea, that means it's probably pretty conservative thinking that the rest of the world bought into 20 years ago.

So...

Unless this is staffer hyperbole, Obamessiah is setting himself up for failure in two ways.

First, as the 99% voting share, the planning and idea chains become heavily dependent on His wisdom and experience. The fact that he would allow an organization to devolve into that points to a Messiah complex a mile wide.

More to the point, the system becomes self-selecting. Only those willing to work in an intellectual autocracy will work for the Prom King, and thus only those people who will be least likely to challenge the conventional wisdom will be available to cast the 1% vote. Therefore, whatever dissent there is rapidly dwindles down to an effective 0%.

It's not specifically an echo chamber, wherein many voices echo the one. It's really more of a selection process by which dissenting opinion simply dies on the vine.

The effect is a rapidly tightening decision loop, that institutionalizes bad decisions and false assumptions and builds on them at each new cycle. Think of it like a cognitive version of what pilots call a "Death Spiral".

If this WaPo piece is true, the Obamessiah/Bulldoggy axis will become incapable of making course corrections to the campaign, with the effect becoming exponential over time.

IOW, it's gonna get ugly for them and once it does, it's gonna get ugly fast.

[kim]

How's ChunderCo?
============

[Danube of Thought]

You're being magnanimous, Charlie. "Chuck" is fightin' words for the Charlies I know. Along with Joe and Sam, Charlie is one of my favorite names. Plus Danube, of course.

[Soylent Red]

ChazCo

[Charlie (Colorado)]

ChazCo works for me.

I probably know more "Chuck" Charles's that "Charlie" Charles's (and there's my mother's favorite, "Charley") but I've an Uncle Chuck, so there's a disambiguating aspect here too.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Soylent, I think you're on to something there, and would like to quote/riff off you in my blog. Along those lines, check my post on "the SNAFU Principle" back at Explorations. Hadn't really gotten around to talking/thinking about the OODA loop though.

[Soylent Red]

Riff on Chaz. My knucklehead meanderings are fully open source.

[Jim]

Okay, this guy is officially beginning to freak me out.

Man, only just now, Chip? I've preferred Hillary to him for a couple of months now.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Man, only just now, Chip?

I make a distinction between "troubled" and "freaked out".

[clarice]

John Podhoretz has some sage advice for those of us certain that the voters will never elect such a far left candidate with no real resume and a cast of unsavory associates:
[quote] In 2004, John Kerry, the most liberal member of the Senate and nobody’s idea of a good candidate, received 59 million votes. He bettered Al Gore’s 2000 vote total by 17 percent. He only lost because George Bush generated 62 million votes, the greatest number in American history. Who received the second greatest number of votes in American history? John Kerry.

A left-liberal can win, and will win, unless he is defeated by his rival. Barack Obama will not defeat himself. He’s already too strong a candidate for that to be a possibility[/quote]
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/blogs/index.php/jpodhoretz/4921
h/t:Lucianne.com

[Rick Ballard]

Hasn't the Chairman of the Politburo always had 99% of the vote?

[clarice]

As for the role his lame management style will play, this is not the WH, this is a campaign and to date he has figured out the rules and their weaknesses in his favor far better than his rivals.
McCain and the assclown RNC are his rivals in the general.
It ain't going to be a cakewalk beating him.

[Soylent Red]

Charlie:

Good stuff you wrote, and on track. I recommend to you the following:

"The Logic of Failure" - Dorner

"The Psychology of Intelligence Analysis" - Heuer

"Sources of Power" or "The Power of Intuition" - Klein

All of which are right on point with what we are talking about here, and what you were talking about with the SNAFU principle.

[LindaK]

This is fiction. You think that a guy with absolutely no executive excperience, no experience running a national primary, and who can't operate effectively off script is calling all of the shots?

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Soylent, thanks.

[Soylent Red]

It ain't going to be a cakewalk beating him.

Not saying it will be Clarice. In fact I would argue that Hillarity would have been the easier candidate to whip up on.

Much harder to beat up on wonkish policy than on a Movement or a Dream

But as far as Obamessiah not beating himself, I disagree that it is improbable. I would put it at a 50% proposition.

McCain and the RNC are going to have to put some energy into Obamessiah's cycle, and at the right places (centers of gravity). But if the staffer can be believed, Obamessiah will have the same kind of meltdown all autocratic decision systems have when you put pressure on them.

[Neo]

Food for thought

The Audacity of What?

[Appalled]

TM:

Brother, that is an awful small data set to be drawing giant conclusions about Obama's decision making style.

[clarice]

Soylent, I adore you adn hope beyond hope that you are right. I'm looking at a very weird Rep candidate and a party so stupid it funnelled money in the last election to Lincoln Chafee without even getting a single promise from him in return.

[LindaK]

While I agree that Axelrod and the Chicago machine have waged a good fight against Hillary, it has effectively taken the nonpartisan, nonracial veneer off Obama. WSJ polling showed that Hillary won the experience criteria hands down, Obama obviously won the black vote by 85%, and Obama had trouble with white males, winning only 36% in NC. Several observers point out that 1) Obama is now a leftist candidate, with support dwindling as the voter spectrum moves right and that 36% of voters are undecided. How many more black voters and clueless college students can Obama penetrate? I think McCain has something to work with. He'll need it.

[Soylent Red]

Clarice:

I would never say I'm "right", particularly since, as Appalled aptly points out, it is a miniscule data set I'm making assessments on.

However, what I would say is that if Obamessiah is operating in this manner, it points to a structural flaw in his decision-making process that can be exploited to catastrophic effect.

I probably should have just said that in the first place.

[JM Hanes]

Axelrod is clearly the genius here. The only time Obama actually had to run a real campaign, he lost. His state election wins were a triumph of legal maneuvering, which might be worth some oppo research since he happens to be a lawyer, and he didn't even need a strategy to beat Alan Keyes.

The 99% here is pure PR. It's all about "looking Presidential" and projecting the same kind of leadership image Obama's trying to cultivate when he says (firmly!), "As CiC, I'll set the mission." He'll listen to his generals, but they'll do what he tells them to do. I have no doubt that Axelrod & Co. are listening to Obama. That's part of tailoring the campaign to the candidate, but I don't believe Obama came up with his campaign's stunningly successful caucus strategy, or any other strategy, for a second. Shifting tone is a tactic, and shifting back into optimistic gear is my idea of a no brainer.

I'm getting the creeps too, Charlie. Mostly because nobody is addressing the actual content of his speeches. He's not just promising to redistribute portions of the American pie dream and demonizing the engines of the American economy (We're the demons we've been talking about!). With the single exception of chatting up the enemy, the guy is a flagrant isolationist who is promising us the Great Wall of China in reverse. When is somebody going to ask him about Japan or India or Russia or Brazil or about somebody other than his grandmother in Africa?

McCain seems to have a pretty solid team in place at this point, but unfortunately, I'm afraid that the candidate himself is not smart enough, not adept enough and not idealogically consistent enough to effectively burst Obama's rhetorical bubble.

[sbw]

[OT] " I've an Uncle Chuck"

My sister didn't like to be called "Aunt Nancy" so her nieces and nephews always called her "Uncle Nancy." [/OT]

[BumperStickerist]

I'm all for piling on, but the window of the timeframe was "the next two weeks" and the issue at hand was strictly campaign related.

In such a case I'm all for the "screw it, we're doing this" approach.

Remember, Tom et al, the fun we had at the expense of Kerry's campaign management style? Committees, subcommittees, twenty-seven advisors for every issue ...

[Danube of Thought]

I think McCain just may be stupid enough to lose this thing. But any of the "smart" Republicans would have done worse.

The GOP has no one but itself to blame. When I get their phone calls these days, I respond with vituperation and billingsgate, to the point where the calls have begun to dwindle.

Maybe it's time to get that place up in Idaho, put up a satellite to catch the NFL, and load the place up with 180-grain boat-tails, Springfields, Weatherbees, Winchesters and Unertl scopes. Maybe a Claymore or two...

[Jane]

I can't help but think this is what happens when things come too easily for someone. Obama has been handed stuff his whole life so he somehow thinks that is a result of his great wisdom. He doesn't need any imput from the likes of advisers.

Part of me wants him to win so no other democrat will take office for decades after. But I think the price is too high to really wish for that.

[Soylent Red]

Well..whatever the case on his decision processes, one thing we can always hang our hat on is his inexperience.

See what he says himself about that here.

[clarice]

Well, a small ray of sunshine:Hill says she's staying in. I expect she's cream him in Puerto rico where she owns the terrorists; W Virginia etc.
I expect she's banking on him making a really fatal error or she has another shoe she has not yet dropped.

[LindaK]

Drudge has it that the superdelegates are refusing to take the Clintons' phone calls. Think Hillary could get ballistic enough to morph back into the Goldwater Girl of her teens? There's a thought.

[cathyf]

"Charlie". Thanks. "Chuck" is something that ups.

I have a good friend named Robert who points out that the problem with nicknames for guys is that they tend to be verbs.

[Soylent Red]

There's a thought.

**In best Emperor Palpatine voice**

"Yeeeeees. She would make a powerful ally."

/StarWars geekiness

[clarice]

**she'll cream him*****

[Ralph L]

I think TM has misinterpreted the comment about Obama's style:
The candidate and henchpeople hashed over the presidential campaign's history, looked at the upcoming primaries and decided....
I don't think it was a monologue thoughout. Per Lindak, he's just trying to look decisive and forestall the wimp label.

[Neo]

HOUSTON, May 5 -- The oil and gas industry will need to invest $50-100 trillion to rebuild its ageing infrastructure within the next 7 years and stave off a serious drop in oil and gas production, Matt Simmons, chairman of Simmons & Co. International, told OGJ May 5 at the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston.

In a worst-case scenario, Simmons said, oil and gas output could fall by 10-20% by 2013 if industry does not replace its rusting, corroded assets. Spare capacity also has run out because formerly cheap prices for oil and gas precluded upgrading and construction of new facilities.

So much for those "wind far profits".

[LindaK]

Trauma can produce stange results.