This is a blog post that I drafted on March 22, 2009, which I find very appropriate today after experiencing President’s leadership since taking office-You Decide:
Question: Are we witnessing a lack of leadership skills at the top?
The following article and/or blog post seems to give us an insight into our President’s lack of leadership skills-You Decide:
Are We Home Alone?–Posted on The New York Times-By Thomas L. Friedman-On March 21, 2009:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/22/opinion/22friedman.html?emc=tnt&tntemail1=y
These are pertinent excerpts from this article:
“I ran into an Indian businessman friend last week and he said something to me that really struck a chord: “This is the first time I’ve ever visited the United States when I feel like you’re acting like an immature democracy.”
You know what he meant: We’re in a once-a-century financial crisis, and yet we’ve actually descended into politics worse than usual. There don’t seem to be any adults at the top — nobody acting larger than the moment, nobody being impelled by anything deeper than the last news cycle.
Instead, Congress is slapping together punitive tax laws overnight like some Banana Republic, our president is getting in trouble cracking jokes on Jay Leno comparing his bowling skills to a Special Olympian, and the opposition party is behaving as if its only priority is to deflate President Obama’s popularity.
I saw Eric Cantor, a Republican House leader, on CNBC the other day, and the entire interview consisted of him trying to exploit the A.I.G. situation for partisan gain without one constructive thought. I just kept staring at him and thinking: “Do you not have kids? Do you not have a pension that you’re worried about? Do you live in some gated community where all the banks will be O.K., even if our biggest banks go under? Do you think your party automatically wins if the country loses? What are you thinking?”
If you want to guarantee that America becomes a mediocre nation, then just keep vilifying every public figure struggling to find a way out of this crisis who stumbles once — like Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner or A.I.G.’s $1-a-year fill-in C.E.O., Ed Liddy — and you’ll ensure that no capable person enlists in government. You will ensure that every bank that has taken public money will try to get rid of it as fast it can, so as not to come under scrutiny, even though that would weaken their balance sheets and make them less able to lend money. And you will ensure that we’ll never get out of this banking crisis, because the solution depends on getting private money funds to team up with the government to buy up toxic assets — and fund managers are growing terrified of any collaboration with government.
President Obama missed a huge teaching opportunity with A.I.G. Those bonuses were an outrage. The public’s anger was justified. But rather than fanning those flames and letting Congress run riot, the president should have said: “I’ll handle this.”
He should have gone on national TV and had the fireside chat with the country that is long overdue. That’s a talk where he lays out exactly how deep the crisis we are in is, exactly how much sacrifice we’re all going to have to make to get out of it, and then calls on those A.I.G. brokers — and everyone else who, in our rush to heal our banking system, may have gotten bonuses they did not deserve — and tells them that their president is asking them to return their bonuses “for the sake of the country.”
Had Mr. Obama given A.I.G.’s American brokers a reputation to live up to, a great national mission to join, I’d bet anything we’d have gotten most of our money back voluntarily.
Inspiring conduct has so much more of an impact than coercing it. And it would have elevated the president to where he belongs — above the angry gaggle in Congress.
“There is nothing more powerful than inspirational leadership that unleashes principled behavior for a great cause,” said Dov Seidman, the C.E.O. of LRN, which helps companies build ethical cultures, and the author of the book “How.”
What makes a company or a government “sustainable,” he added, is not when it adds more coercive rules and regulations to control behaviors. “It is when its employees or citizens are propelled by values and principles to do the right things, no matter how difficult the situation,” said Seidman. “Laws tell you what you can do. Values inspire in you what you should do. It’s a leader’s job to inspire in us those values.”
Right now we have an absence of inspirational leadership. From business we hear about institutions too big to fail — no matter how reckless. From bankers we hear about contracts too sacred to break — no matter how inappropriate.
And from our immature elected officials we hear about how it was all “the other guy’s fault.” I’ve never talked to more people in one week who told me, “You know, I listen to the news, and I get really depressed.”
Well, help may finally be on the way: one reason we’ve been sidetracked talking about bonuses is because the big issue — the real issue — the president’s comprehensive plan to remove the toxic assets from our ailing banks, which is the key to our economic recovery, has taken a long time to hammer out.
So all kinds of lesser issues and clowns have ballooned in importance and only confused people in the vacuum.
Hopefully, that plan will be out by Monday, and hopefully the president will pull the country together behind it, and hopefully the lawmakers who have to approve it will remember that this is not a time for politics as usual — and that our country, alas, is not too big to fail. Hopefully …”
Note: The following articles and/or blog posts and videos relate to and/or support the above article and/or blog post-You Decide:
Obama The Divider!–Posted on Discover The Networks:
http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/viewSubCategory.asp?id=1641
A Leaderless Nation!–Posted on American Thinker-By Peter Heck-On August 11, 2011:
http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/08/a_leaderless_nation.html
Rubio Blasts Obama: ‘Left-Wing Strong Man’!-Posted on National Review Online-By Robert Costa-On June 30, 2011:
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/270862/rubio-blasts-obama-left-wing-strong-man-robert-costa
The President’s Peculiar Press Conference!–Posted on National Review Online-By Yuval Levin-On June 30, 2011:
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/270868/president-s-peculiar-press-conference-yuval-levin
Video: Obama’s Leadership Lecture Disturbing!–Posted on The Patriot Update-On June 30, 2011:
http://patriotupdate.com/videos/obamas-leadership-lecture-disturbing
Video of the Day: Lou Dobbs to Obama, “Quit Whining and Start Leading”–Posted on ExposeObama.com-On September 8, 2010:
Obama doesn’t have a clue–Posted on TheHill.com-By Dick Morris-On June 1, 2010:
http://thehill.com/opinion/columnists/dick-morris/100913-obama-doesnt-have-a-clue
White House in Disarray–Posted on The Heritage Foundation-On May 28, 2010:
Biden’s Prediction: Obama Failed the ‘Test’–Posted on NewsMax.com-By Christopher Ruddy-On May 27, 2010:
http://www.newsmax.com/Ruddy/obama-oil-spill-polls/2010/05/27/id/360387
Obama the Polarizer!–Posted on RealClearPolitics RealClearPolitics HorseRaceBlog-By Jay Cost-On May 11, 2010:
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/horseraceblog/2010/05/obama_the_polarizer.html
Has a ‘Katrina Moment’ Arrived?–Posted On The New York Times-By Frank Rich-On March 21, 2009:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/22/opinion/22rich.html?emc=tnt&tntemail1=y
Mr. Obama and the Rule of Law!-Posted on The New York Times-On March 21, 2009:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/22/opinion/22sun1.html?emc=tnt&tntemail1=y
The Art of Political Distraction!-Posted on The New York Times- By Sheryl Gay Stolberg -On March 21, 2009:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/22/weekinreview/22stolberg.html?emc=tnt&tntemail1=y
Administration Seeks Increase in Oversight of Executive Pay!–Posted on The New York Times-By Stephen Labaton-On March 21, 2009:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/22/us/politics/22regulate.html?th&emc=th
Question: What could be the result of being governed by a President that lacks and/or does not exercise strong leadership skills, as our country struggles to overcome our economic financial crisis?
This article gives us a disturbing picture of what we might be headed for at this critical time, due to the lack of leadership skills at the top – You Decide:
The Collapse of ’09–Posted on LewRockwell.Com-By Gerald Celente-On March 22, 2009:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig10/celente1.html
Note: The above articles and/or blog posts and videos relate to and/or support my following blog posts-You Decide:
America’s Love Affair With President Obama Is Over!
https://weroinnm.wordpress.com/2010/11/07/americas-love-affair-with-president-obama-is-over/
Is Obama and The American Public on Different Pages, if not Different Books?
Obama the Polarizer!
https://weroinnm.wordpress.com/2010/05/13/obama-the-polarizer/
The Russian View of What Has Been Happening In America!
https://weroinnm.wordpress.com/2010/04/22/the-russian-view-of-what-has-been-happening-in-america-2/
Washington Times Calls for Obama’s Impeachment!
https://weroinnm.wordpress.com/2010/08/31/washington-times-calls-for-obama’s-impeachment/
Extensive Research Into Senator Obama’s Background Completed on November 3, 2008:
Where Is America Today?
https://weroinnm.wordpress.com/2010/05/26/where-is-america-today-2/
A Nation Adrift Theme and Disclaimer:
https://weroinnm.wordpress.com/2010/01/26/disclaimer/
“Food For Thought”
“God Bless & Keep Our USA Safe”
Semper Fi!
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