Leadership
I was in a discussion today with a friend who describes themselves as an independent. Whether or not this is true, I can’t be certain nor does it matter much to this discussion. This friend clearly is to the left on some issues but still questions some of the decisions, actions and priorities of Obama’s Administration. Regardless, the discussion touched on a number of recent, national topics and GorT brought up a concern: when has Obama demonstrated any leadership on any of these issues? He’s always been late to the game or absent.
“Well, what about the Affordable Healthcare Act?”
Uh, no. Remember it was Pelosi and the rest of the democrats in Congress pushing that through. Maybe Obama pressured a few of the swing democrats or encouraged them with promises of how the White House will take care of them in the future. Out of the topics covered, this may be the one where the President showed some leadership…but it clearly wasn’t stellar. Remember, we have to pass the bill to know what’s in it? And for a 1300+ page document that we still don’t know the full set of ramifications.
“Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate, and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand.” – General Colin Powell
“What about the budget?”
You’re kidding, right? The senate democrats haven’t passed a federal budget in three years, the president has been late submitting his own budget to Congress, and his last two budgets have received zero votes. His approach was to push for commissions, blue panels, etc. to look at the issue and then brushed his hands off and left.
“One of the tests of leadership is the ability to recognize a problem before it becomes an emergency.” — Arnold Glasow
“But he is in favor of gay marriage now”
Let this one play out. What exactly is he going to do about it? That will be telling. Paying lip service to it is nothing more that political pandering. Listening to parts of his interview, he said that these same-sex couples should be treated the same – the same as heterosexual couples. One had to infer that he meant with regards to insurance and benefits aspects as discrimination laws already apply. He didn’t mention any specifics to his position or beliefs.
“The older I get the less I listen to what people say and the more I look at what they do.” — Andrew Carnegie
I could go on with other examples but I’m sure you see the pattern. It even harkens back to his first act as President where he tried to close Gitmo. We know how well that’s gone. While it appeased those on the left who were against it (and where are they now that it’s been over three years and it remains open), he quietly let it die away. The press is complicit in this behavior by not calling the President on these things. Rarely will you see or hear a reporter challenge the President or his press secretary over these things.
In general, I think that there is a dearth of strong leadership on both sides of the political spectrum.
GorT is an eight-foot-tall robot from the 51ˢᵗ Century who routinely time-travels to steal expensive technology from the future and return it to the past for retroinvention. The profits from this pay all the Gormogons’ bills, including subsidizing this website. Some of the products he has introduced from the future include oven mitts, the Guinness widget, Oxy-Clean, and Dr. Pepper. Due to his immense cybernetic brain, GorT is able to produce a post in 0.023 seconds and research it in even less time. Only ’Puter spends less time on research. GorT speaks entirely in zeros and ones, but occasionally throws in a ڭ to annoy the Volgi. He is a massive proponent of science, technology, and energy development, and enjoys nothing more than taking the Czar’s more interesting scientific theories, going into the past, publishing them as his own, and then returning to take credit for them. He is the only Gormogon who is capable of doing math. Possessed of incredible strength, he understands the awesome responsibility that follows and only uses it to hurt people.