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A Weak President Fails Leadership 101

Has Buffett become an Obama Parlor Trick?The agreement we passed in July will cut government spending by about $1 trillion over the next 10 years. It also charges this Congress to come up with an additional $1.5 trillion in savings by Christmas. Tonight, I am asking you to increase that amount so that it covers the full cost of the American Jobs Act.

Barrack Obama
September 8, 2011

As much as it pained me, I watched every word of Obama’s much anticipated Jobs Speech last night.

Sadly, I heard nothing new. Sure, if you dump $450 billion into a $14 trillion economy, you’ll get a blip, just like we saw with Stimulus One, Cash for Clunkers, the payroll tax cut, and various other temporary “bones” Obama has thrown the economy.

But just like these other political parlor tricks, the gain will be minimal and temporary. It will not lead to the creation of new businesses, sustained innovation, or foster the formation of the kind of new industries that have fueled the American economy in the past.

But that’s not my biggest problem with Obama’s jobs program, my problem is the lack of presidential leadership that this speech personified!

The Anatomy of Failed Leadership

Over the past few months, a growing number of media outlets and pundits have come out to question Obama’s leadership skills.

I have maintained since 2007, that we have no reason to believe that Obama would be an effective leader, since he managed to get to the age of 48 without holding a single leadership position (the academic President of the Harvard Law Review notwithstanding).

I spent 25 years studying leadership and there are certain qualities that separate leaders from pretenders and Obama’s speech last night confirms him as the latter.

Leaders Do The Tough Jobs Themselves: The bulk of Obama’s speech was nothing more than a “Candy Man” offer of free money, jobs, and other goodies to all deserving souls if Congress would stop “being political” and “just pass the bill.”

Is this what leaders do? Consider this -- parents are the fundamental leaders in our society. What would you think of a unemployed father who told his children that they could have tons of toys at Christmas knowing he had 50 cents to his name? I’d call him insincere, weak, or sad. I would not call him a leader.

Similarly, last night Obama promised a slew of goodies and promised to “pay for them,” by challenging the Congressional Super Committee to find an additional $450 billion in cuts on top of the $1.5 trillion in cuts most people believe they’ll never find!

Back to our unemployed father analogy, what Obama did would the equivalent of telling his desperate children “I will pay for all of you lavish Christmas gifts by challenging mommy to find the money.”

Trust me everyone in that hall last night, including Obama knew he was taking credit for the easy job of giving free stuff away and passing the buck on the hard piece to a committee that has yet to hold it’s first meeting. No legitimate leader would ever do this.

Leaders Speak the Truth: Once again, Obama quoted Warren Buffett’s tale that he pays a lower tax rate than his secretary. This is the sort of “line” we hear in TV Infomercials from hucksters hoping you rush to your phone and buy now.

The truth is, the tax rate that 80 year old Warren Buffett pays is irrelevant. He’s 80 freaking years old and worth billions. He doesn’t work for a living anymore, he’s living off of savings and investments he made years ago and paid taxes on when he earned it.

And by citing his “secretary,” he is pandering to a sexist stereotype that being a female office worker is not a serious job, doesn’t pay well, and thus shouldn’t pay their fair share of taxes.

I do not know Warren Buffett’s secretary, but I have known many CEO secretaries over the years and I can tell you they are not simple minded clerks; in most cases there carry the responsibilities and organizational clout of a Vice President and are paid accordingly (Randy Woodbury published an excellent analysis of the insincerity of this claim in his piece “The Oracle is Confused, Yet Again”.)

Yes, many marginally informed people might hear Obama cite this line and say “that’s not right, Warren Buffett should pay more taxes,” but those dopes aren’t the ones who have to pass Obama’s Jobs Plan. The people who Obama was attempting (pretending) to lead all know this is just an insincere lie designed to pray on the small minded.

Leaders Walk The Talk: Perhaps the most offensive piece of pandering came last night when Obama said “I want to see more products sold around the world stamped with the three proud words: ‘Made in America,” as the camera panned to GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt sitting in the president’s box with Michelle.

Not only is GE aggressively moving jobs from the United States to China, but they are also the poster child for big businesses who spend millions on DC lobbyists to avoid paying any taxes!

A true leader would never been seen in the same town with a person who typifies so much of what he opposes, but Obama invites him to sit with his wife!

Imagine you’re a member of Congress and you hear the words Obama speaks and see that he’s selected one of the worst job killing, tax avoiding men in the country to lead his jobs program.

Do you follow him, or cringe?

Dead on Arrival

The president’s same-old-same-old is going nowhere fast. It’s been tried and failed; we can’t pay for it, and most of all, Obama’s insincerity surely put off more Congressmen than it won over.

All that remains to be seen if how the republicans dance around it without passing it and how often Obama demagogues the wealthy, investors, businesses, and anyone who opposed his tax and spend policies.

Meantime the double dip recession triumphs.

No surprises here – this is what you get when you make a man president with zero leadership skills.

Dave

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A Weak President Fails Leadership 101
Friday, 09 September 2011

Who Stole My Career?

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