I have an assessment that I'd like to offer regarding the potential difference between the style of leadership of Barack Obama, and Donald Trump,
which gives me still more reason to be hopeful and optimistic in spite of the fact that I vehemently opposed Trump's candidacy all along the way.
When Obama took office, he was way in over his head. Very green as a Junior Senator with no executive management experience, except as a community
organizer which hardly counts as "experience".
He also seemed to be really focused on what it means to look and sound "Presidential", and worked very hard to perfect the different aspects of that
persona so that in any and every setting he could BE the President. He tended to rely on the "professorial" approach, of being knowledgeable and
articulate and perfecting a way of speaking and being that would convey the right level of gravitas.
And while he did a great job in that regard and was certainly the "coolest" President, by projecting the right image, and articulating the right
information to demonstrate his knowledge of the issues, the whole approach is generally a type of compensation for a level of insecurity of sorts with
an emphasis on appearance, interactions, and imaging, in saying the right things and looking the right way and always working to set and strike the
right tone in all those interactions. But here's the thing - that's but the smallest part of the job itself as everything that would fall under the
category and discipline of "diplomacy". It's important, and something that Trump needs to learn how to do much better, but it's really not that big of
a deal, certainly not to the level that Obama devoted so much effort to convey.
In a nutshell, it's all just talking. People have a meeting, wonderful things are discussed, everyone gets along and is impressed, and maybe you have
a few action items that come of it, but that's about it.
It doesn't form the basis for a highly effective game plan that breaks out a major to do list and decision tree. It's pretty tame in many ways when it
comes to cause, and effect and getting major stuff done to really move the ball ever faster. It's too self absorbed in some ways to accomplish that,
where the emphasis is mostly around image consciousness and playing the appropriate role for the situation.
I had a close friend (now passed on) who reminds me of President Barack Obama in so many ways it's crazy.
My friend was very good looking, thin, and extremely articulate and well spoken. He would use his assets to basically bluff his way through any
interaction, but in terms of outcomes, because he was so gifted and talented in the area of communication and interpersonal relations, he generally
was satisfied provided everyone had the right impressions from a meeting or interaction whether it launched an aggressive action plan or not. We are
all, or most of us "lazy" in some way or another, wanting to do the least we can get away with while achieving generally satisfactory outcomes, but,
because we are so image-conscious and concerned primarily with perceptions, in particular the perception of how we handle ourselves, we take our eyes
off the ball.
What Donald Trump isn't, is lazy, and while he's perhaps a little too narcissistic and self-absorbed for most people's tastes, there's a fundamental
difference in what makes him tick. For Donald, while the image of success might be at the top of his pyramid, it ties directly to the concept of
results, and winning.
Yes, he loves attention and the limelight, but, the measure of success (money and wealth) is the very luster on the image without which there's no
image ie: just a good looking guy bluffing his way all along with minimal RESULTS (I think he'll read this stuff, to be honest).
I believe that this, right here, is the reason why, aside from having the Fed print gobs of money, and managing to somehow restore the image of the US
in the eyes of the world via a process of aggressive diplomacy and the expression of "soft power" (very very important, Donald - walk softly and carry
a big stick) in the wake of the Bush/Cheney Neocon years, which was an abysmal failure as we all know, including moving that ball down the field as
Obama has done (see map of ME), and other than Obamacare, he really didn't get much of anything accomplished.
He dug in his heals relative to the Congress, and, while largely ignoring them, spent most of his Presidency on being Presidential, and in a way it
worked. He seemed to have helped pull us out of the deep ditch the Republicans had placed everyone in, while saving the auto industry with a
Socialist-like bailout, and that worked too! Strides in green energy and energy independence, also good.
So while he got some stuff done in the process that was good, at another level he accomplished little, in many ways due to his incalcitrant
relationship with Congress, as if the Executive Branch were entitled to it's own prerogatives without the will of the people, except according to the
right image projection.
And then you just get to be cool and to BE the President, and generally kick back and relax and enjoy the sights and the show.
Like my friend sort of bluff way his through where appearance is most important than concrete and substantive actions, of causes and effects.
Donald doesn't like just talking and not DOING with measurable outcomes and effects.
For him the interaction isn't successful unless and until there's movement that's tangible and measurable.
Donald looks pretty good for a 70 year old and a big husky guy too, like me, but he can't be concerned with image, except that of the American people
and nation as a whole. It's not about him. It's about all of US, together (how ironic to lift Hillary's slogan), for REAL.
People like Jay-Z and Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, etc etc, are all interested in one thing. Basking in the glory of the limelight, and grabbing up attention
or perhaps hogging the glory that's intended for everyone, not as a mass of people, or a glob of them (collectivism), but as the fullness of who and
what they are as a Americans, which for American citizens is linked directly and inexorably to economic progress and well being with a rising middle
class. It's both top down and bottom up, both, that's also secure and does not tolerate bloody black op false flags at any level, ever. Real security.
Doesn't even have to be beefed up or made more muscular when it's REAL and not subject to black op psy-ops or in what was "going on".
Donald's no fool. He knows when something's not right and his job is to fix it, not try to leverage power off some whacked out, programmed patsy who
once his timer has been set is ALLOWED to go off that's just not right.
He therefore has to wreck absolute havoc among the CIA and Intel apparatus, by simply replacing people with other people who are the best of the best
that America has to offer. That's the key right there. It's a personnel issue. HR.
If I were the Donald, that's what I'd be focusing on first things first priority - the creation of a type of internal placement agency. Don't give
that task to Priebus. Mistake.
Create it internally - a perfect task for Kellyanne Conway (and not because she's a woman - many women in HR).
I even suggest plucking some of the top Headhunters in New York to Headhunt full time for Donald Trump and the Country.
It's really just a data center with one, singular focus, the BEST.
edit on 10-11-2016 by AnkhMorpork because: (no reason given)