If the Pen Just Sits There, It Isn't Mighty

I'll start this with a couple of familiar quotes.  One is the phrase familiar to all of us -- "The pen is mightier than the sword", meaning that the written word is a long-lasting object and, when used properly, it has immense power, even relative to more familiar weapons.  Information, when spread, is extremely potent.

The other is the creation of our president, Barack Obama, who famously or infamously says "I have a pen and a phone."  His message is equally clear.  When Congress is ready to take action on his agenda (as opposed to anything the USA actually needs), they should call him for guidance on his phone, and he has a pen to sign a bill whenever it is passed.

We have seen repeatedly how this president leads from behind in foreign engagements -- if memory serves, that phrase actually came from his own White House team.  Talk and talk, and when an ally actually takes action, we're right there standing behind them wishing them well.  Maybe we'll give them money or a tank.  Such, however, is not leadership, and in the analogous domestic concerns of our day, "leading from behind" is not going to produce a legislative solution to our current woes -- a non-existent recovery, for example, a health insurance crisis that has not yet hit the economy (next post), immigration reform, whatever.

When I voted for the other guy in 2012, it was with full knowledge that he was a very competent manager who had actually run things -- a company or three, an Olympics, a state.  He might have a whole house of Congress of the other party, but he would be expected to talk to them, to meet, cajole, work together to hammer out solutions to problems.  He was able to work with a Democratic legislature in Massachusetts, and it seemed as if he knew the drill.  Reagan did it, Clinton did it, Romney could be expected at least to know how to do it.

Obama's approach is so insular as to be frightening.  He appears to have read the "5 Habits of Incompetent Executives" book and fixated on the chapter entitled "Surround Yourself with Yes-Men; It's Less Challenging."  You will get nothing done, Mr. President, sitting in the Oval Office waiting with your drumming fingers on the desk for Congress to send you things to sign.  You are the leader; you need to lead.  Leading is getting people in a room regularly to produce compromises that transcend politics.  Pick up that phone of yours and start calling people who disagree with you and listen to them.

Obama seems not to do this, either because he has zero actual people skills or, absent any leadership experience, he just doesn't know how. 

It isn't a pen and a phone he should have.  He needs a spine and a clue.



Copyright 2014 by Robert Sutton