The aloof CEO in the White House

By Tom Quiner

“How could any president put his entire reputation on the line with a program and not be on the phone every day pushing people and making sure it will work? Do you know of any president who wouldn’t do that?””

This quote comes to us from Peggy Noonan’s blog in the Wall Street Journal.  The quote comes from an Obama supporter, no less.

It’s a very good question. How COULD the president be so aloof as   to the implementation of his signature (if dubious) accomplishment of his presidency?
We know the president had countless meetings with the boss from the IRS during his presidency. We know that he had some 277 private meetings with various cabinet secretaries during his presidency. And yet he met not once with HHS secretary Kathleen Sebelius on an individual basis.
Peggy Noonan’s friend (the Obama supporter) was incredulous at how hands off the president has been. This gentleman knew what it takes to run a big operation, reports Noonan:

“The questioner had been the manager of a great institution, a high stakes 24/7 operation with a lot of moving parts. He knew Murphy’s law—if it can go wrong, it will. Managers—presidents—have to obsess, have to put the fear of God, as Mr. Obama says, into those below them in the line of authority. They don’t have to get down in the weeds every day but they have to know there are weeds, and that things get caught in them.”

Perhaps Mr. Obama feels the weeds are too beneath him. This is surprising coming from a man who has been quoted as saying,

“Nothing frustrates me more than when people aren’t doing their jobs.”

Evidently, it’s okay when the CEO, the president in this case, doesn’t do his.