Still Un-Managing

We made a decision some time ago to avoid too many political diatribes on these august (web)pages. I feel compelled to re-enter the fray this one time due to a recent occurrence that brings to mind President Obama’s poor managerial skills.

A friend of President Obama, prominent Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, was arrested when someone called 911 as he tried to enter his house without a key. He cried racism. Obama commented that he was unaware of the facts of the case, but believed the Cambridge Police acted “stupidly.”

Since then various law enforcement organizations have cried foul, many have vouched for the quality and effectiveness of the arresting officer, and the local district attorney has contemplated releasing recordings that could actually paint Gates in a very poor light if the arresting officer’s assertions are true.

This isn’t the first time that the President has waded into waters far too shallow for his situation. Since his initial poor statements he has made an effort to clarify, but it is still emblematic of his generally poor record on issues that are ultimately inconsequential to the office. I’d worry less if it wasn’t the first time, and I suspect it will not be the last.

Return of the Un-Manager

My hard-hitting look at the management inability of Barack Obama continues. Having chronicled previous examples of the Un-Manager at work, this latest bit fell right into my lap, courtesy of el Drudge.

Apparently the Obama campaign does not do a very good job of treating the media. I’m not going to cry to much when the media suffers, but even these guys deserve reasonable working conditions:

The McCain campaign plane is better than Obama’s, which is cramped, uncomfortable and smells terrible most of the time. Somehow the McCain folks manage to keep their charter clean, even where the press is seated.

I suppose Febreze probably has some kind of deleterious environmental effects. More from the piece by CBS’ Dean Reynolds:

The national headquarters in Chicago airily dismisses complaints from journalists wondering why a schedule cannot be printed up or at least e-mailed in time to make coverage plans. Nor is there much sympathy for those of us who report for a newscast that airs in the early evening hours. Our shows place a premium on live reporting from the scene of campaign events. But this campaign can often be found in the air and flying around at the time the “CBS Evening News with Katie Couric” is broadcast. I suspect there is a feeling within the Obama campaign that the broadcast networks are less influential in the age of the internet and thus needn’t be accomodated as in the days of yore. Even if it’s true, they are only hurting themselves by dissing audiences that run in the tens of millions every night.

The McCain folks are more helpful and generally friendly. The schedules are printed on actual books you can hold in your hand, read, and then plan accordingly. The press aides are more knowledgeable and useful to us in the news media. The events are designed with a better eye, and for the simple needs of the press corps. When he is available, John McCain is friendly and loquacious. Obama holds news conferences, but seldom banters with the reporters who’ve been following him for thousands of miles around the country. Go figure.

Yeah. Go figure.

The Un-Manager Strikes Back!

Back in May I wrote this post about Obama’s failings as a manager. This issue has re-emerged with the rise of Sarah Palin to the McCain ticket. This Politico article explains:

Just hours after his campaign issued a first statement Friday ripping the addition of Sarah Palin to the Republican ticket, Barack Obama backed away from that statement — or at least its tone — and said that his own campaign had misrepresented him. 
Obama often speaks of how important his staffers are to his bid and would be to his administration, and he’s praised them for covering for each other’s mistakes. But in the heat of the campaign, he’s publicly called them out for everything from missing an event to misrepresenting his policy positions to using his office to aid a donor. 
When asked about his campaign’s attack on Palin, attributed to top spokesman Bill Burton, at a Friday afternoon media availability at a Pennsylvania biodiesel plant, Obama referred to a statement he and running mate Joe Biden had since issued that hardly touched on policy issues and called Palin “an admirable person and … a compelling new voice.” 
Obama disavowed his campaign’s first response, telling journalists that “I think that, uh, you know, campaigns start getting these, uh, hair triggers and, uh, the statement that Joe and I put out reflects our sentiments,” he said. 

Either Obama allows his campaign to make these comments so that he can later disavow them and appear above the fray, or he has no control over his people. Isn’t there someone in the campaign that Obama can trust? Apparently even his top spokesman makes this kind of error. This does not bode well for the way an Obama administration would run.

Where does the buck stop with Barack?

The Un-Manager

This post is dedicated to Joey, whose disgust with the Obamenon is apparent (and justified).

(Speaking of guys named Joe, where is Joe Millah?)

As Mittites we extolled his virtues as a manager. Obama has demonstrated that he is the Un-Manager. As defined in Lowdogg’s Lexicon:

-Noun; One who desires the fruits of management without the labor; also one who takes credit for the “good stuff.” blaming everything else on anything else (underlings, drugs, genetics, a vast right-wing conspiracy)

ABC News’ Jake Tapper has a pretty scathing post about Obama’s penchant to blame his staff for campaign missteps. There are at least ten clear times where Obama has blamed mistakes, gaffes, and faux pas on staffers. I understand that you can’t always stop your employees from saying the wrong thing, but Obama has attempted to explain the sending of written documents from his official offices as actions for which he holds no responsibility. The fact that he was “not aware,” and therefore not responsible is cause for deep concern.

I work in a service business. I have employees. If there is a mistake, I pay for it, in more ways than one. Thousands of other people take responsibility for such things. That is the mature and responsible course for a leader to take.

Is it too much to expect the man auditioning for the country’s top management post to do that same?