Obama's Management Style

A pattern is emerging here of a detached presidency that goes beyond the president himself to his cabinet as well.

Not only does Obama have deniability when it comes to critical activities, his cabinet members as well are in the dark.  It takes them days to get information from their rank-and-file employees.

Take for example:

• Treasury and IRS harassment of conservative groups
• Homeland Security and ICE detainee releases
• Attorney General and, well, lots of things.  AP reporter phone records for example
• State Department and embassy security
• CIA and intelligence warnings

The pattern is the same for all; Obama didn’t know what was happening, the cabinet member didn’t know what was happening, and getting to the truth takes weeks and months to uncover.

No Drama Obama has created a culture in the White House of a cabinet that only brings him good news.  All the data is rosy.  No one wants to bring him a crisis.  It is all about making him look and feel good.

So, he wants 8% unemployment or lower, and his Labor Secretary gives it to him.  He wants record-setting deportation numbers and Napolitano obliges. That mentality rolls downhill to the department heads and the individual employees.  The whole system is geared to propaganda at all costs.

Such a system can only work when Obama’s people work around him.  You’ve got Valerie Jarrett (not subject to review or censure) who theoretically could be working with departments of government a couple of layers down.  She would know the real truth and do the actual work of the executive branch.  And the deniability of Obama and his cabinet would be intact.

But I’m not sure Obama is that smart.  Government could simply be on auto-pilot with bureaucrats doing what bureaucrats do best.