Where Are We Headed?

It appears the leader is being led.

Obama has kicked out Paul Volcker, the closest thing to a sane voice on his team of economic do-dos.

He is reportedly sending 40,000 more of our young to be wasted in Afghanistan. He long ago abandoned any pretense of leadership or backbone in the farcical pursuit of healthcare reform. And he expects sane people to support his every capitulation to the financial, health and military oligarchs?

Obama needs to look back at Jimmy Carter for a lesson in leadership. No, I don’t mean emulate Carter. I mean Carter presents an object lesson. As Obama might say, “This is a learning moment.”

Carter was trained as an engineer. He had the mindset of an engineer, not a politician. Carter’s approach was to try a method to solve a problem. If it didn’t work, try something else. Do you remember the outcome of his way? He was labeled a “waffler.”

Now, look at Nixon, Reagan and W. Even though they promoted policies that frequently went against the wishes of the country, as expressed in the polls, they got their way. How? Why?

After Nixon the people thought they wanted someone who was not a strong leader. They got Gerald Ford. That next election their choice was between two candidates that were seen as nice guys but not strong leaders. After Carter’s term they gravitated to someone seen as a strong leader.

It’s a matter of follow the leader. We have discovered that, although Obama is accomplished at inspiring a crowd, he has yet to prove he can lead it.

He has given a free hand to the financial cabal led by Goldman Sachs. I think his instincts in this area are at least partially correct. They just are not fully conceived. Whatever, he fails to lead. He relies on those who caused the global meltdown to provide the remedy. It seems obvious to everyone else that they brought us to this point because of the idiotic ideology they have held since birth. Is there reason to believe they have gone through a massive, intense re-education in the past few months?

Obama is sending another 40,000 units of cannon fodder to Afghanistan. Why? Because a “military expert” says we need them to give the most corrupt government on Earth a chance to succeed. Really? How long will that take? 400 years? 700 years? Once again, Obama is not taking the reins. He is following, not leading.

His inability or failure to lead is most obvious in the realm of healthcare reform. First, he learned the wrong lessons from the Clinton fiasco. He learned that the Clintons had put together a plan and presented it to the Congress. So, he tells the Congress to develop a plan. Has anyone ever accused the Congress of leadership? Have they ever been accused of being able to construct a cogent, workable, real-world plan when left to their own resources?

The lesson to be learned was that the people want something understandable to support. That means it must be simple. Two thousand pages rarely suggests simplicity. You lead by raising your fist and saying, “Follow me.” You don’t lead by using both hands to hoist up a 2,000-page joke and saying, “Vote for this, whatever it is.”

What would work? Try HR 676, Medicare-For-All. That is simple. Medicare took less than 11 months to implement. That was starting from scratch. We now have the structure in place. It just needs to be scaled up. Who could possibly support a plan so complex its supporters claim it requires four years to get up and running?

What to do? The progressives in the House and Senate need to actually carry out their threats. They need to vote down the bills now being considered. No pussyfooting. They need to just do it.

What would the results be? Well, Obama and the Democrats would have egg on their face. They would be seen as being incompetent to run the government. The Republicans would gain some seats in both houses in 2010 but Obama would still be President and the Democrats would still have majorities in both houses. True, they would be slimmer majorities but the Republicans got their agendas through with smaller majorities. It’s just that they exhibited a modicum of leadership.

Obama and the Democrats in Congress have already acquired the reputation of being incompetent to run the government, so that would not be all that different.

If the progressives scuttled those bills, Obama would have to reassess his performance. If he took the reins and showed real leadership, the public would respond. He would still have time to recover and win big in 2012. He might even be fortunate enough to turn his administration around by the mid-term elections. That might be too much to expect but it is possible and could at least minimize the loss of seats in that election cycle.

Obama has the choice. He can learn the right lessons and be mentioned in the same sentences as FDR and LBJ, or he can be the next Carter, a nice guy but one who can’t accomplish the turnaround this nation so sorely needs.

Tagged as: afghanistan, clinton, congress, expert, fdr, gerald ford, global meltdown, goldman sachs, health care, healthcare, hr 676, jimmy carter, LBJ, leadership, medicare, mid-term, nixon, obama, oligarch, paul volcker, president, progressive, reagan, w, waffler