tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post1181351661970974398..comments2023-10-16T07:13:12.123-05:00Comments on A plain blog about politics: The Real MeJonathan Bernsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15931039630306253241noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-57050113182191742772012-08-30T10:16:19.120-05:002012-08-30T10:16:19.120-05:00Hey, I'm no huge defender of Obama's compe...Hey, I'm no huge defender of Obama's competency; I'm an annoying fan of <a href="http://www.geoffcolvin.com/books/" rel="nofollow">relevant experience</a> - Obama's lack of same really shows, imo.<br /><br />Still, its sort of remarkable that we had maybe 100 million qualifying conservatives we could have nominated for the Presidency, and we settled on the guy whose relevant life experience is diametrically opposed to the demands of the job (if you believe Neustadt).<br /><br />Worse yet, we conservatives are actually <i>proud</i> that we chose an historically inappropriate person given the demands of the job, thinking - in an amazing display of collective cognitive dissonance - that his wrongness is what makes him so right!CSHnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-8227360880803586962012-08-30T08:31:02.082-05:002012-08-30T08:31:02.082-05:00Well, the current officeholder is "uniquely, ...Well, the current officeholder is "uniquely, staggeringly, awful at the job", so we must have a matched set, then. <br /><br />So apparently, it comes down to Ryan vs. Biden. ;-)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-60811372600929033402012-08-29T21:56:40.506-05:002012-08-29T21:56:40.506-05:00We've gone back and forth a few times about wh...We've gone back and forth a few times about whether POTUS and MNC CEO are essentially the same job. These posts, and skimming the Neustadt link, convince me that - particularly in the <a href="http://www.druckerinstitute.com/" rel="nofollow">Peter Drucker</a> era - the jobs are largely similar, as both roles are essentially Persuaders in Chief.<br /><br />Thanks in part to Drucker, virtually all big corporations are broken into several smaller 'corporations', with Division Presidents having ownership of profit centers and the CEO acting sometimes as cheerleader, sometimes as tonesetter, and sometimes as evaluator. All similar, it seems, to Neustadt's view of the Presidency. <br /><br />What makes the corporate structure work appears to be the same thing that Neustadt meant by "mutual dependence": i.e., one or more of the Division Presidents may hate the CEO, desperately wanting the CEO's job, but both the CEO and the Div. President benefit when the Div. President's Profit Centers do well. Similarly, we can safely assume that HRC ferociously despised BHO when she handed over her delegates four summers ago; as SOS, her political success and his are mutually interdependent.<br /><br />Making all this interesting: what's true about an MNC CEO is - almost breathtakingly - <i>not remotely true about the CEO of a vulture capital firm</i>. Say what you wish about the economic benefits arising from Bain's form of capitalism, but it simply beggars belief that those boys ever persuaded via a method other than the point of a spear.<br /><br />Which leads to a phenomenal conclusion about our representative democracy: we are about to select a man to be the most powerful in the world on the basis of resume data that specifically suggests he would be uniquely, staggeringly, awful at the job.<br /><br />This is incredibly pessimistic, but man we are one seriously f**** up polity.CSHnoreply@blogger.com