THE ENTERPRISE--A PRESIDENTS' DAY SCORECARD

THE ENTERPRISE--A PRESIDENTS' DAY SCORECARD

A GOAL UNREALIZED
I wanted very much to write a President's Day edition of THE ENTERPRISE which focused solely on what was good about Barack Obama.  After all, he is our elected leader and  he deserves some respect.  I even compiled a list of topics to write about.  I am going to put the list here, because most of the point are self-explanatory.  Finally, I decided that not only couldn't I identify enough material to write what I had hoped to write.  Here are some positives:

1. Barack Obama is mixed race--half black--and that is good, because it shows America that the president doesn't need to be a "white guy."
2. Obama actually cares deeply--once you get past why he cares so deeply--that can be an admirable quality, unless it is for the wrong reasons.
3. He favors minorities, and this is done with a careful eye to qualifications, can be a good thing.  When done in spite of [lack of] qualifications it turns into a weakness.
4. He is a "fresh face" with some original ideas.  The problem is that they are often flawed ideas, that fail to pass either the test of past experience or solid analysis (e.g., Cost competitive alternative energy is a long, long way from ever being widely practical; Electric cars do not pass the energy balance test either--and in cold climates, they will run out of "gas" which means the batteries will discharge rapidly due to the cold, stranding drivers in dangerous conditions.  Engineers know this.  Why doesn't Obama ask one.
5. His goal of wealth re-distribution to help the poor starts with a noble goal and then goes off track in how he plans to do it--by taking from those who are responsible and earn their own living.
6. Obama seems to have overlooked the fact that Keynesian economics has failed over and over and yet the liberal elitist he chooses as advisors keep pushing them.
7. Obama is smart, well-educated, but somehow has a 'tin ear" when it comes to hearing what the broad majority of Americans think, feel and want. He chooses to attempt to educate us, or filibuster our concerns, until he can do what he wants (something else).
8. He can be brilliantly articulate in delivering a speech, and while (as he says" "words matter," what matters more is whether the actions promised or inferred by the words are actually carried out.  In his case, they are not.  He doesn't "walk his talk."
9. Many wonder if Obama cannot become "Reaganesque" and for those, I ask you to use the link below and listen to the commentator.  The answer will be evident.
10. I don't believe Barack Obama is purposely tryying to harm America, but he's doing a good job of it without trying.  Read on....

SOME TRUTHS ARE TIMELESS...WATCH IT AND SEE/HEAR
Watch This 50 year-old video, narrated by Ronald Reagan.  Then no one can say they were not forewarned.
ATT00001.wmv
 
Received from one of my friends:The Cash for Clunker Math
Note: The person who calculated this bit of information went to high school in Pittsburgh, Pa.    He is now & has been a professor at The University of West Virginia in Morgantown, West Virginia for the last forty some years.  I never looked at the clunker program in such depth. 

Cash for Clunker Math
Think of it this way:  A clunker that travels 12,000 miles a year at 15 mpg uses 800 gallons of gas a year.  A vehicle that travels 12,000 miles a year at 25 mpg uses 480 gallons a year.  So, the average Cash for Clunkers transaction will reduce US gasoline consumption by 320 gallons per year.   They claim 700,000 vehicles so that's 224 million gallons saved per year.  That equates to a bit over 5 million barrels of oil.   5 million barrels is about 5 hours worth of US consumption.  More importantly, 5 million barrels of oil at $70 per barrel costs about $350 million dollars.  So, the government paid $3 billion of our tax dollars to save $350 million.   We spent $8.57 for every $1.00 we saved. 
I'm pretty sure they will do a great job with our health care, though, when it's all said and done.


OBAMA'S RECORD BREAKING PERFORMANCE AS PRESIDENT & STILL HE HAS A STRONG POTENTIAL FOR REELECTION--THAT IS SIMPLY INSANE!

The undisputed record holder among presidents of the United States is clearly Barack Obama.  He holds more records than those listed below, but this list is sufficient to show the kind of stellar performance he has turned in during his first two+ years of his presidency.
 

1. Record number of Americans unemployed & underemployed.
2. Record length of time Americans have remained unemployed.
3. Record highest government spending in the history of the U. S. A.
4. Record highest budget in the history of the U. S. A.
5. Record highest Federal budget deficit.
6. Record highest projected 10 year future deficits.
7. Record number of governmental regulations added.
8. Record number of pages in bills signed into law.
9. Record number of TV appearances justifying one of them.
10. Record number of TV appearances of any President in first 2 years.
11. Record number of times the word I was used in Presidential speeches.
12. Record number of times a U. S. President has been critical of his country.
13. Record (low) number of times attending church while president.
14. Record amount of teleprompter use in history, by any president.
15. Record amount of money spent on his campaign to be elected.

 THE METRICS OF OBAMA'S DAMAGE
January 2009    Today    % chg    Source
Avg. retail price/gallon gas in U.S.    $1.83    $3.104    69.6%    1
Crude oil, European Brent (barrel)    $43.48    $99.02    127.7%    2
Crude oil, West TX Inter. (barrel)    $38.74    $91.38    135.9%    2
Gold: London (per troy oz.)    $853.25    $1,369.50    60.5%    2
Corn, No.2 yellow, Central IL    $3.56    $6.33    78.1%    2
Soybeans, No. 1 yellow, IL    $9.66    $13.75    42.3%    2
Sugar, cane, raw, world, lb. fob    $13.37    $35.39    164.7%    2
Unemployment rate, non-farm, overall    7.6%    9.4%    23.7%    3
Unemployment rate, blacks    12.6%    15.8%    25.4%    3
Number of unemployed    11,616,000    14,485,000    24.7%    3
Number of fed. employees, ex. military (curr = 12/10 prelim)    2,779,000    2,840,000    2.2%    3
Real median household income (2008 v 2009)    $50,112    $49,777    -0.7%    4
Number of food stamp recipients (curr = 10/10)    31,983,716    43,200,878    35.1%    5
Number of unemployment benefit recipients (curr = 12/10)    7,526,598    9,193,838    22.2%    6
Number of long-term unemployed    2,600,000    6,400,000    146.2%    3
Poverty rate, individuals (2008 v 2009)    13.2%    14.3%    8.3%    4
People in poverty in U.S. (2008 v 2009)    39,800,000    43,600,000    9.5%    4
U.S. rank in Economic Freedom World Rankings    5    9    n/a    10
Present Situation Index (curr = 12/10)    29.9    23.5    -21.4%    11
Failed banks (curr = 2010 + 2011 to date)    140    164    17.1%    12
U.S. dollar versus Japanese yen exchange rate    89.76    82.03    -8.6%    2
U.S. money supply, M1, in billions (curr = 12/10 prelim)    1,575.1    1,865.7    18.4%    13
U.S. money supply, M2, in billions (curr = 12/10 prelim)    8,310.9    8,852.3    6.5%    13
National debt, in trillions    $10.627    $14.052    32.2%    14
Just take this last item: In the last two years we have accumulated national debt at a rate more than 27 times as fast as during the rest of our entire nation's history. Over 27 times as fast! Metaphorically, speaking, if you are driving in the right lane doing 65 MPH and a car rockets past you in the left lane 27 times faster . . . it would be doing 1,755 MPH!

SMALL EXAMPLES CAN MAKE BIG IMPRESSIONS
Here is a story sent to me by a friend. It is so simple and yet so powerful in its message that I had to share it with you.
 
THE PRESIDENT'S IDEA OF CUTTING SPENDING:
The President ordered the cabinet to cut a whopping $100 million from the $3.5 trillion federal budget!   I'm so impressed by this sacrifice that I have decided to do the same thing with my personal budget. I spend about $2000 a month on groceries, medicine, bills, etc, but it's time to get out the budget cutting ax, go line by line through my expenses, and go to work. I'm going to cut my spending at exactly the same ratio -1/35,000 of my total budget. After doing the math, it looks like instead of spending $2000 a month; I'm going to have to cut that number by six cents!  Yes, I'm going to have to get by with $1999.94, but that's what sacrifice is all about. I'll just have to do without some things, that are, frankly, luxuries.


I WANT TO RE-FOCUS ON "THE ART OF THE POSSIBLE" IN ONE PART OF THIS EDITION.
One of the most valuable things I learned in my business career was to help the people around me do the best things they could based on their unique talents and desires.  I always built jobs around the strengths of the people instead of trying to force fit them into some theoretical shape on an organization chart that someone else dreamed up--and that was the same for every organization. 

People are wonderfully unique.  There are not very many bad people.  There are people who have been trapped in jobs they were ill-prepared for, and that they might even be ill-suited for.  The challenge of a leader is to get the right talent in the right places, to use the strengths of everyone in an organization in the best way possible--and to make sure they all understand and buy into what the organization is going to achieve.

A few will be cynics who must be banished.  A few will be misfits, who must either be fitted into a new spot or moved out to find a job where they can be happy and successful.  Most of the people will want to succeed, will be happy to perform to the best of their ability, and will be delighted to have a shared vision of what they will achieve together.  Then they will "own" that vision, and together, they will win, far more often than they will lose.

Those are the facts, the basics that are timeless truths.  Those truths are true in America or Asia or Algeria.  Different cultures will have different values and beliefs, but not different hopes and wishes--at least not if they have not been "brainwashed" or "deluded" by the leaders they are following.  Abraham Maslow was right about his hierarchy of needs, and people will try to move up from basic needs of personal and physical sustenance, to those of emotional sustenance to the pinnacle of self-actualization.  Help people move up that hierarchy and the success they can achieve by working together is truly amazing.  That is what a leader must help them achieve; that is what the leader of our country must help us achieve. 

And Barack Obama is NOT doing that—not even close.

FIGURES MAY NOT LIE, BUT LIARS FIGURE --AND DISTORTED FIGURES LIE MOST OF ALL...
The drop in unemployment the Obama Administration reported for January is phony.  Real, unweighted data showed an increase from 9.1% to 9.8% in joblessness rather than a cut in the highly weighted figure from 9.4% to 9.0%.
500,000 Americans despaired of ever getting a job and left the workforce, bringing the jobless rate down. The net loss of jobs continues to this day with 8,750,000 eliminated rather than the 8,363,000 the Administration reports.  Obama has had two raging job related "successes" in his term as president. 
1.  He has slashed unemployment by persuading millions to give up hope and leave the labor force. 
2.  He has cut illegal immigration by casting the United States into a permanent job shortage.

SO, SORRY, BARACK--YOUR CLEVER, SMOOTHLY DELIVERED WORDS ALWAYS START TO SWAY ME-- UNTIL I WATCH WHAT YOU DO
Then I remember Stephen Covey's brilliant words, "Your actions speak so loudly, I cannot hear what you are saying."

We need a President with more than good intentions and smooth speaking delivery.  We need one who knows how to fix America, and can explain to Americans in stirring language how he will do that and what their role in the repairs will be.  It will not be painless--it will be painful!  Years of deceit, deficits and delusions cannot be undone easily, but the time is NOW. 

We cannot wait.  Let's all look hard at potential 2012 candidates and not jump to conclusions--but it is time to start eliminating some of the more cosmetic contenders.

Best, JOHN







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John L. Mariotti, President & CEO, The Enterprise Group, Phone 614-840-0959  http://www.mariotti.net   http://mariotti.blogs.com/my_weblog/