Obama: He Can Campaign, But Can He Govern?

If the polls are correct when we wake up next week on November 5th, President-Elect Barack Obama and Vice-President -Elect Joe Biden will be starting to put together a new administration to try to solve America's massive economic and foreign policy problems.

Obama has proven to be a gifted speaker, dazzling the crowds who will go to the polls in record numbers to vote for him to be our 44th president.

Obama has proven to be an amazing fundraiser, bringing in a record number of dollars through the Internet and revolutionizing how campaigns will be raising money in the future.

Obama has proven to be very disciplined in his campaign messages on domestic and foreign policy issues. He has shown a knowledge of the facts in the presidential debates.

Obama has been cool and confident during the economic crisis we find ourselves in today, and that has helped his rise in the polls. He appears to be someone who can handle a crisis.

Obama's campaign staff has been loyal and on message throughout the long primary season and the general election campaign.

And when, if the polls are correct, Obama is our new president-elect, it will be an historic moment in our country's history. The first African-American president will show how far America has come in the past several decades. His election will show that America is about hope and opportunity for all of our citizens and it will greatly restore America's role in the world. Obama is a popular figure across Europe and the rest of the world.

With all this said, the main question on all of our minds is not that this is history in the making--which it truly is--but how Obama and Biden will solve our massive problems.

We are at the tip of the iceberg in our dire economic situation. We are fighting two wars and engaged in the War on Terror. We need a revised health care system. We need better schools. We need to end the polarization in our politics. We need to bring our deficits down. We definitely need a more effective energy policy. And we need a president who is willing and able to ask us to sacrifice to bring about some needed changes here and abroad.

The question we all have now is: Can Obama govern effectively? Will he choose the best and most able people for his Cabinet regardless of their party? Will he reward the special interests who helped elect him and put their interests above the national interest?

We all have questions about his leadership abilities as our 44th president. He will have no actual power until he is inaugurated next January, but he will be facing all of our problems starting next week. Hopefully, President Bush will invite Obama or one of his top economic advisors to the international economic conference he is hosting in November.

Like FDR when he came into office in the 1930s, we are facing severe economic issues that the new president has to deal with immediately. Unlike FDR, Obama not only faces these severe economic problems today but he has to figure out how to disengage American troops from Iraq without massive civil unrest in that country.

He has to figure out how to stop the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan and how many U.S. troops will be needed in that country.

What will he do if Iran continues to develop a nuclear weapon? How will he bring about a lasting Middle East peace? Will he be a protectionist or a free trader in international trade matters?

Obama will be facing daunting challenges. Let us hope his governing skills are as good as his campaigning skills. We are voting for change but for a person with very little track record in governing much less running such a huge organization like the United States government. His governing skills are negligible but he has shown a common sense approach to tackling the issues during the campaign. Let us hope he can turn these skills into being an effective and inspiring chief executive and commander-in-chief.

The American voter will speak next week. If the polls are correct we will have chosen a brilliant campaigner with very little executive experience. May he have some of the qualities that FDR exhibited during the Depression and World War II and some of the qualities Lincoln displayed during the Civil War.

He will need these qualities--in spades--to bring about the change we need.

Comments

[RegLib]

Can Obama govern? Good question, and one we cannot answer directly about either Obama or McCain since neither has held an executive position.

The only thing we can judge them on is the campaign teams they've assembled and how they've led those teams; presumably that's a reflection on the teams they would assemble and lead as president. And based on that, Obama is the only candidate that has shown the ability to bring together competent experts and to provide the leadership and discipline to keep them focused. The 3-ring circus that is the McCain campaign clearly shows that a McCain administration would be disastrous.

[Spesabsquemetu]

Great reflective piece.

The fact is that campaigning involves management, it involves executive decision making, it involves negotiations, conflict resolution, and the ability to focus large masses of groups in concert towards achieving a shared vision, and common goals.

You think that' s easy? Try rallying together 100,000 individuals to come to hear you speak.
Try motivating millions to donate.
Try inspiring millions to VOLUNTEER for something they believe in.
Try coordinating between huge numbers of people - all across the nation, in every state.

The fact is - Obama is already demonstrating executive decision making, though the media rarely gave him any credit for it and because his experience far out distances anything that McCain or Palin have done, they are more than eager to dismiss his tremendous accomplishments.
But never in the history of elections has a campaign like Obama's been seen.
And that's no accident.
It's talent, it's giftedness, it's the ABILITY TO LEAD.

Think he'll have trouble inspiring a network of talented and inspiring individuals to join him in serving this nation? Look at who is already joining forces with him: well regarded names in public service from both sides of the aisle!!

Obama is presidential.
He is ready to lead.
All he needs now is our support, everyone getting to the polls and voting for the kind of change that America finally deserves after a very long 8 years.

[billofgoods]

The answer is NO...

[LetMeUnderstandThis]

Get out and Vote!
Get everyone you know to Vote!
Don't be discouraged from Voting because the lines are long!
Don't be discouraged from Voting because Police are at the voting locations!
Vote Early!
This is the most important election in modern history, none of us can afford to assume this is in the bag. It will be in the bag after we all vote.

Many have died for the right to vote, so that we can vote without fear! I stand tall with Senator Barack H. Obama Presidential Candidate for the United States of America

Obama/Biden 08-12

[englishprof]

Yes, and what will you do if snow and a banana peel land at the same time under your left foot as you are trying to climb some stairs? And what will I do if a blizzard and five-foot-high waves attack my vessel from the stern as I approach a harbor? Yes, and what will ....

[inthenitemare]

"Will he reward the special interests who helped elect him and put their interests above the national interest?"

Obama did not take money from lobbiests for his campaign. So, I'm wondering what special interests your refering to when you ask that question? Unless your meaning John Q Public as a special interest; You know, "the people"?
That's who will elect Obama president!

[michigan boy]

"Did not take money from special interests"??????? What? Where did he get his money then? He hasn't taken any public money. Fact is, both McCain & Obama have gorged themselves on special interest money, just like all presidential canidates before them. I laugh when people buy into the rhetoric about change. Doesn't matter who you get in office, nothing ever changes. We boot out the Democratics (anyone remember Jimmy Carter???) and elect the Republicans and then boot them out for the Democrats. Four or eight years from now, we'll be fed up with whatever party is in and trade them for the other shumcks. And the country fairs the poorer for it. In the past 25 years I been voting, all I've ever heard is "Vote for me, I'll make this country better". What have we got? More stupid laws, more regulation, more taxes, more goverment defiect, bigger goverment, more goverment intrusion in our lives, and a worse quality of life. Didn't matter who was in office, the status quo hasn't changed, nor will it. Please don't delude yourself that one man is going to come in and make everything better. Won't happen.

[milo h minderbinder]

To answer your question, I have no doubt.

Yes.

[JWord]

Obama voters are about to find out that his idealistic rhetoric is both unrealistic and misleading.In the best of times, Obama's pie-in-the-sky policies can never be achieved without plunging this country further and further into debt. In these worst of time, Obama realistically cannot do much of any thing he has promised without either taxing corporations to the point where they move out of the U.S. and also seriously lowering his $200,000 threshold on cutting taxes (remember that his number was $75,000 in the primaries and will be a much more likely tax increase limit) or deficit-spending which will drive this country into a long-term and painful depression. Obama has hypnotized his supporters with a "middle class" saviour mantra. However, a close look at his background, ideology, statements, and experience shows that his heart and mind is for lower-income people. Any tax, health or education benefits will be geared to that group of Americans and the "middle class", as usual, will be left out and footing the bill(Obama after this campaign to the middle class - "So sorry but I just can't keep my promises to you after all but we have to spread the little wealth we have left around.")

[boophus]

The republicans always use this rhetoric but the evidence is against them. It is under Democratic presidents that the national debt goes down, employment goes up , and investments prosper.
Dems may be tax and spend but they don't spend even close to the levels of Republicans who want to cut taxes on the rich and dump the burden on the middle class. Not only that but less people suffer under Dems, we see an increase in education levels and there is less divisiveness with claims that the opposition is subhuman, traitors, treasonous, immoral, un-American, communist, socialist, Un-Patriotic. Under Dems there is no effort to enshrine one groups race, religion and portfolios as the prime core of our country even if they have to destroy the constitution to do it. Under Dems torture, no-charge imprisonment and suspension of Habeas corpus is not celebrated.

[Dave01]

I wouldn't say that they spend "less" than Rethugs because they historically don't. What I would say is that they spend the money much more WISELY than the Rethugs.

[boophus]

As for Obama not being able to do much of what he promised , who do we have to thank for that? Now that we have such a huge national debt after invading Iraq & Aftghanistan with a sustained war in both and yet cutting taxes once again on the richest (those tax cuts have brought the top bracket down from 90+% under Eisenhower to less that 36%) along with deregulating and not enforcing what little regulations we still have has totally trashed our economy. And the worst is not over. FDR worked to ameliorate the depression but it was only the deficit spending of WWII that finally pulled us out of the Depression. So I truly hope he will encourage congress to invest in our infrastructure and in getting us weaned off of foreign oil which is resulting in a huge wealth transfer to those who have OIL. Here's an example : NASA was pretty cheap compared to the military budget but many of the most successful sectors of our economy derive from what they discovered or developed. We need to improve education not go with vouchers and faith biased curriculums that will push us further behind the world where they have taken up our developments and ran with them. We are frighteningly short of Doctors , nurses, scientists, engineers that are good enough to compete not to mention the undegreed skills that aren't being taught. We can't all work at McDonalds.

[newshawk14]

One other major problem is, under Bush the federal agencies have been
trashed. Many of the senior people have left, because they couldn't stand
the Bush appointees.

[MsMicki]

Barack is a leader that we need in these times. We need someone who has our best interests at his heart. We need someone that the rest of the world admires. (I still didn't understand why his greeting in Germany was considered a bad thing) We need to heal.

Barack has stated many times, that he is not perfect. He has also said many times, that this election is not about him. Whenever he talks, he says we, us, and you. When McCain talks he says I, and I and I.
I know how to find Bin Laden, and I will. No the sons and daughters of this country will actually carry out the task, so it's not just about you. Don't believe me, watch his stumps. It's all about him. He's a war hero, he was shotdown and taken into captivity. He always says I know how to talk to this person, or I know how to go about it. Whatever. If he was this good, why is it that it took him to be 72, 30 years in the Senate, and now that we have someone who says that he wants to change things, all of a sudden he can do it. Give me and the American people a break.

I think the American people are sending out a loud message which is, "we trust Barack Obama to be our leader". Now, how many states were red before?...­..........

[sbhatte]

Are you serious? The entire campaign has come to an end and we are facing an imminent decision on November 2008 and you are asking a question which has been asked and answered several times over. At the behest of sounding condescending, I do have to say that either you dont have a TV or you just woke up from a long slumber.
I do not favor Obama nor do I favor McCain. From my perspective neither are what America could use right now. But then again, I think it is fair to conclude that Obama-Biden ticket is a better option than McCain-Palin one. Most administrations are not run solely by the President. The choices that Obama has made and the support he has had from few of the most wise men and women in this world, I think we can safely say that he will not screw this one up as badly as Bush screwed up. If we could survive 8 yrs of Bush, I think Obama is going to be a heaven!

[ordinaryzen]

What we do know is that McCain is not ready to lead. He showed extremely bad judgment in choosing Sarah Palin, an incurious person not only ignorant in national and international politics but also out in left field regarding some things she does believe in. He showed bad judgment in halting his campaign to go back to Washington only to sit silently and not contribute anything. He was laughed down by economics experts when he proposed that tax payers assume the losses of the bad mortgages in the country. He is wrong to give an added tax cut to the wealthiest people in the country. and then to lie about it in ads.

And if his melanoma catches up to him, and Palin becomes president, that would be extremely, extremely frightening.

[cgr]

If he governs as President the way he has conducted his campaign, I have every faith we will be in very good hands. There's every reason to believe that he will, because it's who he is, not a public persona he faked.

He's clearly, tireless, competent, organized, focused, flexible, adjusting to changes without flap, steady, deeply intelligent, deeply respectful of and knowledgable about the Constitution, open to the expertise of respected voices on every issue; he maintains an innate sense of friendliness, inclusiveness and cooperation toward others and toward the world community, values honor and service, and truly cares about the well being of the nation and its people, and the world.

It just doesn't get any better than that.

[jeanrenoir]

Obama has run the most brilliant campaign in modern American history. His strategy has been right on target, and he's executed it flawlessy. That's as good a recommendation for his executive ability as McCain's hapless, fly-by-the­-seat-of-y­our-pants fighter pilot's daily improvisations have shown him to be hopeless at strategic planning, and worse at disciplined execution. The old guy's simply hopeless. As for how Obama will solve our problems, Obama's asking, directly, what would Paul Volcker do? Etc. You can't have wiser advisors than Obama has chosen--all seasoned, skillful, moderate hands who truly know what they are talking about. Obama will have the best brains trust in decades, in contrast to the pathetic mediocrities, many of them neocons, who ran the Bush Administration into the ground.

[GarthR]

Just look at the people he brought into his senate office and his campaign. Many of the senior staff tell stories of being pursued by Obama, sometimes over the course of months, so he could get the talented people he wanted. His ability to recruit and manage a very smart staff is reflected in the success of his campaign and there is no reason to assume he will change direction as president.

[beanhole]

re: your last line - "in spades" - was that necessary?