Presidential Leadership

In God We Trust

PRESIDENTIAL LEADERSHIP

By Maj. Gen. Jerry R. Curry (ret'd)
CurryforAmerica.com

Leaders in the military are taught to quickly identify, isolate and focus on the most important things in a war to the exclusion of lesser things. That is because to be successful, a military leader has to win wars, not individual battles. President Obama has yet to learn that lesson; he has yet to learn how to lead.

Obama has evaluated the nation’s current situation and properly concluded that there are three issues which require the nation’s attention. Unfortunately, he has been unable to figure out that all three are not of equal significance. Therefore, he has failed to determine which is most important.

If Obama loses the battle of “Healthcare,” he can still win the war. If he loses the battle of “Global Warming” he can still win the war. But if he loses the battle of restoring the economy and “Creating Jobs,” he will lose the war. That is why at twelve noon on January 20^th, 2009, Obama’s focus and the focus of everyone in his Administration should have converged with laser beam intensity on the task of creating private sector jobs – real jobs – and more real jobs.

From the hour of Obama’s inauguration until the present time, all presidential speeches, actions and programs should have been focused on encouraging economic growth and getting and keeping the Federal Government out of the way of private business, especially small business -- which is responsible for most of the nation’s job creation. Somewhere, tucked into every speech given by the President and by every member of the Administration, should have been mention of the need for job creation. Every subject debated on Capital Hill should have included practical, workable and immediate courses of productive action which would impact the economy and job growth.

When I was growing up my mother taught me that if an individual, a family, or a government spends more money than it has in its accounts, it will be forced to borrow to make up for the short fall and the money it borrows will have to be paid back with interest. She said that if the government couldn’t pay back its loans on time, it would be forced to borrow more money or go into default.

That is why, she said, it was prudent to keep the federal budget balanced and that all of us at every level should work as hard as we can to get out of and stay out of debt. Events such as the sub-prime lending and housing construction fiascos are warnings that the federal government has allowed our national accounts to get out of control. We have forgotten that eternal financial vigilance should be a top national priority and that continued abuse of our economic system will lead to economic suicide.

Could Cicero writing in 55BC have had the Obama Administration in mind when he wrote, “The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.”

Two years ago if you had asked an American of any political stripe, from the President of the United States, to a junior member of Congress, to the wizened old bureaucrat, to the vice president of a venerated Wall Street firm, to the president of a local bank in the mid-west, to a grievance committeeman in a labor union, what was the number one problem facing the nation, the answer would have been a loud, resounding, “Creating Jobs!” The same is true today.

Obama’s primary goal should be to lead the nation out of its current economic crisis into the sunlight of financial solvency, but he lacks a sense of urgency and seems deaf to the cries of citizens like the “Tea Baggers,” who are painfully and acutely aware of what should be the nation’s number one priority.

If all the effort and time that have been spent on the healthcare debate and formulation of healthcare legislation had been spent encouraging small businesses, which create most of the private sector jobs, the nation would be well on its way toward solving our financial crisis. Instead, Obama has focused the nation’s attention on the secondary issue of healthcare.

The motto of the U.S. Army’s Infantry School at Fort Benning, Georgia, which I attended, is “Follow Me!” At Benning infantry officers are quickly taught that pointing or suggesting is not the same thing as leading. “In war when men die, and in war some must, you can’t manage them to their death. You must lead them there.” Leadership is making right decisions, personally getting out in front when the bullets begin to fly and beckoning others to leave safety and join in the fighting.

Now is the time for Obama to stop the blame game, to stop assigning fault to others for the problems he and his Administration have failed to solve. Whether he likes it or not, the President of the United States is responsible for everything that happens during his administration good or bad, right or wrong -- YES, even those things held over from previous administrations. He is elected to lead the nation, to solve national problems, and to evaluate and establish priorities -- not to dodge and weave, assign blame, preen and avoid responsibility.

If Obama has presidential leadership ability -- and I pray that he does -- now is the time for him to demonstrate it.