Polyanna meets Frank Merriwell

We all know of Pollyanna the incurable optimist but, Frank Merriwell? For you younger folks, he was a mythical Yale undergraduate scholar athlete who survived repeated kidnapping by gamblers, hurricanes, car wrecks etc. to arrive at the stadium just in time to rescue the weary Eli 11 or 9 from defeat at the hands of Harvard. He would save the day with a line drive double with 2 men on base or a 40 yard touchdown pass...always with the clock running out. Of course he existed only in books and very briefly in a radio serial. That's a shame because we would benefit from a real life action hero on the national scene. And we would all benefit from a little more rationality less rationalization and certainly less unfounded optimism



In the past year, we have been exposed to Pollyanna-ish statements on a number of fronts-- political, diplomatic and the economic downturn. Among the examples that come tripping off the tongue;

• After reflection - some would say dithering- we committed an additional 30,000 troops for Afghanistan but not to worry, we will begin to pull them out after 18 months... something for everybody in that pronouncement!




• It was naive to say as Obama did that there is no trade off between our ideals and our safety...Guantanamo remains open and nearly all the prisoners there in January 2009 are still there, we still do renditions and play whack a mole with civilian casualties. Given 90 Yemeni still in Guantanamo I suspect he now would acknowledge there will sometimes be choices required.
  



• The administration forecast 3 million jobs saved or created, unemployment limited to 8%, budgets balanced within a few years, a green economy saving our economic bacon early on...more likely 0.6million to 1.5million jobs, five years to return to full employment and a very modest role for a green economy component in our GNP at least near and mid term. As for a balanced budget - without tax increases that impact more than just the rich - good luck!
  



• As for his promised bipartisanship, to date Obama is no better than his predecessors . His partisanship is amplified because of his thin skinned reaction to criticism has become predictable, e.g. the treatment of Fox news [and I am no fan of Fox], or proclaiming not to mind "cleaning up the mess that others left him" while reacting to "being criticised for how he wields the mop.
  

I accept we have a charismatic president who is intelligent, articulate and has the voice of an angel. Unfortunately, his management style is, to put it kindly, hands off. He doesn't get involved. Does anyone know even now, what Obama really wants in a health care bill, in a cap and trade bill or for that matter in a revised regulatory scheme for financial services? There has been entirely too much delegation without direction to congress with effect that the house health care effort drifted left [It insures another ~ 30million but does little if any thing for cost control and tort reform], the cap and trade bill gives away 85% of the permits that were to be sold [and intended incidentally to finance health insurance reform]. When public opinion is aroused due to the proclivity in DC for talk rather than action, we see Obama reappear. With the clock running out we are treated to major speeches complete with teleprompter. Unfortunately, speeches are not the presidential actions that major issues require and pale by comparison to Frank's heroics on the playing field.

President Obama is having a very difficult time moving from the campaign mode of promising good things to nearly everyone to the presidential mode of managing which requires timely analysis, doesn't permit waiting for all the facts to be known, necessitates giving clear direction, making tough decisions and most all requires real leadership not just cerebral thinking. Put another way he succeeded in the popularity contest but is struggling in the real world...to quote Sarkosy "is he weak?"

Obama promised the impossible with no one except the very rich paying increased taxes. Clearly, it wasn't and isn't doable but a lot of people believed him. Measured against those expectations, Obama first year has been marginally successful; hardly the B+ he gave himself. Versus more reasonable expectations, school is still out for another few months but it isn't looking all that promising for high grades.

A major task of leadership is managing people's expectations including your own. And yes, demonstrate true grit.