After his speech from the Oval Office last night, it is clear that President Obama doesn’t know what to do.
Here’s what the President should have done according to many private sector executives:
1) Go to the scene as soon as the extent of the problem became clear,
2) Assess the situation by collecting data,
3) Assess the credibility of the people involved,
4) Choose a representative to leave in control. Establish a chain of command. Direct the representative to develop and submit options for dealing with the crisis.
5) Supervise and support the representative. Use Presidential power to exhort, support, and inspire the chain of command. If necessary, fire anyone who is failing.
Mr. Obama has reacted like a politician. When politicians are faced with a huge problem that they don’t know how to solve, they first ignore it, hoping not to be associated with it. If that fails, they focus most of their energy on blaming someone else. It’s an instinctive self defense mechanism for someone who is out of his depth. I’ve seen it a hundred times before, and we are seeing it now.