Gitzo Loc: Indiana

Obama BFF (for Now) on Scene (for Now) to 'Save' Obamacare

John Ransom | Nov 29, 2013


In a Thanksgiving missive that reads more like a love letter to the man than a newspaper article, the Washington Post has announced that Denis McDonough, the White House Chief of Staff, is now in charge of the healthcare hairball.

“McDonough is now holding evening meetings every day with key players in the health care rollout,” says the Post, “offering support even as he holds agency leaders accountable.”

Support and accountability? Wow. Evening work too. Whoa.

In Obama’s White House?


If I were McDonough, I’d get my resume ready. Perhaps when he’s looking for work next time, he can just not mention the whole White House thing.

It’s almost as if Obama’s popularity is depending on the implementation of the healthcare law.

In any event, I’m wondering why McDonough wasn’t holding evening meetings, offering support and accountability for the law last January when he took over as Chief of Staff?

That’s what chiefs of staff do.

Of course, in this White House, they need more of a "caretaker" or a "minder" than a chief of staff, but that’s another topic for another day.

Herding cats doesn’t even begin to define the management problems of the administration, unless you allow for the cats to be drug-addled relics from the 1960s and 1970s.

In my own personal experience, I’ve had a few assignments in my life with a lot less public and personal importance than Obamacare. Yet I prepared like my life depended on them, because, um, you know… for those of us in the private sector, success counts for something.

Like our paycheck and job security.

There was that time for example, when an associate and I were trying to conduct a hostile takeover of a failing federally-insured bank to save it from shutting its doors. At the same time we were running a competitive primary to get him elected to Colorado State House.

The stakes weren’t that high.

Only my whole paycheck…from July to the rest of the year. And his paycheck, too.

Nights, weekends? Yes and yes.

Whatever it took, hard work-wise, to make the deal happen we did it.

In the end, we won; we saved the bank.

But the shareholders won, the depositors won and, best of all, the taxpayers who didn’t have to bailout a bad bank won too.

All of us have had experiences like this in life when we trying to do something hard…and we ended up successful.

We all know that the student that studies improves his odds a lot. All it takes is a bit of foresight and hard work in preparation.

So if you look at healthcare.gov as a sort of bad bank—it is after all federally insured against failure by the American taxpayers-- my question is: "Why keep the management that got us to this point in the first place"?

Is McDonough really the guy to save it? Or Obama?

“If you have something that significant,” says Rep. Elijah Cummings, the top Democrat on the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform as reported by the WaPo,” that’s the kind of thing I would think I’d have somebody sleeping with it day and night. When they go to the bathroom, they’re on the cell phone talking about it. When they go to sleep, they dream about it.”

Yeah.

BEFORE it became a problem.

“We went straight into problem solving,” McDonough told the Post. “We knew that going into this, that no plan survives first contact. We knew that we would be confronted with challenges along the way.”

Not really.

Because “first contact” is a term for war, not for well-crafted legislation.

Perhaps it was a Freudian slip. Perhaps the administration really does think legislation is like waging war on the populace.

It would explain a lot about how they do things.

My experience is that good laws survive “first contact” if you read and comprehend them before you vote for them.

Even bad laws can survive if implemented in smart ways.

But when you have the wrong guys implementing the wrong laws, you’re in for trouble.

No amount of catching up will fix the flaws in Obamacare.

No amount of patching will fix the flaws in Obama either.

Good luck to Mr. McDonough, but if hard work can fix this thing, he’s the wrong guy with the wrong boss and the wrong laws.

Let's try changing one those three first.


And Gitzo says.....
It will be fun listening to how our "in-house libs" will attempt to spin this piece, trying to make the author look like the "dummy" here; (with libs, it's ALWAYS "about" the other guy being "to blame"; ) (and they still haven't figured out why we call their idol, "Oblameo"! )

jamitjim73 Loc: Franklin,Tn.

Really, really well said. I agree whole heartily.

silver Loc: Santa Monica Ca.

What are you trying to say here? Can it be simplified into one short sentence?

Zophman Loc: Northwest

here is the one sentence you are looking for:

"President Obama is an inept leader and manager."

silver Loc: Santa Monica Ca.

How do you support this statement?

Zophman Loc: Northwest

It's more than one sentence.....you ready?

silver Loc: Santa Monica Ca.

"Ready when you are", said by Hannibal Lechter. Good analogy I would think.

heyrob Loc: Western Washington

Hey Gitzo, do you know any third graders? It may take someone of that mentality level to bring it down to a level that Silver will understand.

Just sayin'

Zophman Loc: Northwest

First let me list what I fell are attributes of an effective presidents as a leader. There are three:

1. Vision: enthusiastically supports the vision for the United States as documented in the Constitution and Bill of rights.

2. Communication: consistently communicates internally and externally to ensure open lines between all elements including those who are in disagreement to provide valuable information for decision making.

3. Honesty: consistently demonstrates honesty about all events and situations in his/her administration.

Do you agree?

silver Loc: Santa Monica Ca.

OK, Ill play your game. Problem is that there are extenuating circumstances that have to be taken into consideration but Ill play along. By the way I like that you included her in the administration part. So Ill agree to these conditions. By the way does this include president Bush?

silver Loc: Santa Monica Ca.

OH NO its the third grade comparison insult. More insults tsk tsk tsk.

heyrob Loc: Western Washington

You make it easier than shooting fish in a barrel. Passing up such an opportunity would be like seeing a dollar on the sidewalk and walking by without picking it up! :thumbup:

Zophman Loc: Northwest

Let's not alter the original focus of my "one sentence" in that it is specific to President Obama. Expanding the argument will be counter productive to my "one sentence" that you have asked me to support. So I will only address the issue you have asked me to support. (An argument regarding past presidents may be worthwhile, however I would want to treat it as a separate argument for the future perhaps?)

My "support" statements will be many and I'll attempt to make them concise but not necessarily in any chronological order.

In the last debate with Mitt Romney, President Obama stated that he did in fact state the attack on Benghazi was a terrorist event on the Friday immediately after the attack. Yet following his formal statement in the Rose Garden the Ambassador to the United Nations stated on five separate national televised programs that the attack was not due to any terrorist action and was basically a mob that got out of hand.

Here's my take on this: Either President Obama was not honest or his communications with his senior staff were ineffective. There is documentation that he in fact stated something along the lines that the attack was related to terrorists, so I am of the opinion his communications with his Secretary of State were totally ineffective. Ergo one argument that President Obama is an inept leader and manager.

What say you on this specific issue?

silver Loc: Santa Monica Ca.

So please enlighten me as to what great opportunity I am missing?

silver Loc: Santa Monica Ca.

Answer is simple, It was a mob of terrorists that got out of hand and this fact has been complete blown out of proportion by people looking for anything that they can remotely consider an issue.