Is President Obama the Most Active President Ever?

President Obama is being berated essentially for doing what Tom Peters calls "MBWA," managing by wandering around." The President has been criticized for essentially being too present. We see him too much some have said. But he is doing exactly what he should be doing. As any good president of any country, corporation, university or organization, he or she develops a plan, picks a staff and then leads.

When have we ever seen such an active president? President Obama often holds brief and not so brief press conferences on his immediate and long-term plans. He addresses the country weekly via youtube. He plans and particpates in financial and healthcare summits. He goes to Congress to push legislation. He goes on the road with his plan. He meets Democrats and Republicans for dinner to discuss policy. He visits various administrations regularly.

Personally, I have never seen such an active president accomplish so much is so short of time. In less than two months, President Obama has signed the largest bill ever in the history of America in record time to address our most eminent financial crisis. (He has prioritized.) He has outlined a plan to stabilize the housing market end the Iraq war. He signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. He made his first foreign trip to Canada and hosted a foreign leader, Prime Minister Brown of England. Should I mention that President OBama also hosted Earth, Wind and Fire and Stevie Wonder?

President Obama's confidence that he can do many things effectively seems to stem from his confidence in himself first and then the confidence in the administration he has assembled, not to mention the confidence he has in the American people. The President leads and manages the internal (administration) and external (us) staff by wandering around.

Comments

[RDFoster]

Yes, President Obama is the right person at the right time to lead us through the morass we are in, regardless of which party we support.

At the same time, he is only human and will make mistakes (as he has said). Also, President Obama and his staff continually caution us that recovery will take time, and it most assuredly will. The question is: will the fickle American public acknowledge his humanism, and give him the time it is going to take to fix this mess? Remember, this is the same American public that elected Bush-Chene­y-Rove-Rum­sfeld—TWIC­E.

[Anna McCoy]

Great job Judith. I was just commenting this morning prior to reading this that he's so busy getting things done I can hardly keep up with him. Thanks for the short version of getting me up to speed. I think he should continue to create new rules of leadership.

[JohnGOLeary]

Of course RESULTS are what count - and with any complex "system" there are significant time delays before inputs affect the current state. But only the deranged - or dysfunctionally ideological - would wish Mr. O to fail.

[mendelcrosses]

Imagine Hillary won. She'd be crying now,like she did when times gets tough(IOWA)

Imagine McCain won, He doesnt work weekends with the work load currently on the presidents table,the country would be hopeless now.

[Brosreview]

As you rightly wrote, "But he is doing exactly what he should be doing" .

Yes, he is witnessing and experiencing the situation, all first hand such that he can make a fair judgement of any particular situation. This is what any nation needs; a highly-involving politician.

May GOD bless him and his family for this!!!

[Konnie]

teddy roosevelt comes to mind......­..........­......
if ever there was a time when we needed a president like the one we have right now!
this is it! talk about right man at the right time!
God Bless him.
The old saying the the Lord never gives you more than you can handle....­..........­.......

and i remember there is a minister don't remember who - has some saying on his
desk about your knees can only carry today.....­.......

i am not quite so spiritual however in the forgiveness department - personally i want
to heads to roll for this mess we are in.

[mendelcrosses]

The old saying the the Lord never gives you more than you can handle....­..........­.......
###########
He did gave us Bush-Chene­y-Rove-Rum­sfeld.
That was too much for one nation to handle at once.

[blaqntelligence]

"But he is doing exactly what he should be doing."

We have seen elected officials caught in a lie, arrested, impeached, swaggering, cocky, lying, blustering, lying, lying and lying.
President Obama is knocking many off their axis.
Because he is doing exactly what he should be doing.
Leading.

[december30]

i could not have said this better. thank you