I remember asking a very simple rhetorical question a few years ago, which is finally getting answered in headlines. How in the world, I asked, can a street-corner political hack successfully lead the largest free nation on the planet? The obvious answer, which couldn’t be clearer to all but the blindest misguided zealots, is that he can’t.
And no matter the spin, biased reporting or parsing of verbiage the facts are now speaking clearly for themselves.
Once again, Peggy Noonan in the Wall Street Journal listed perfect illustrations in her column: “A Small President on the World Stage."
Ms. Noonan writes that: “[A} continued decline in admiration for the American president. Barack Obama's reputation among his fellow international players has deflated, his stature almost collapsed. In diplomatic circles, attitudes toward his leadership have been declining for some time, but this week you could hear the disappointment, and something more dangerous: the sense that he is no longer, perhaps, all that relevant. Part of this is due, obviously, to his handling of the Syria crisis. If you draw a line and it is crossed and then you dodge, deflect, disappear and call it diplomacy, the world will notice, and not think better of you. Some of it is connected to the historical moment America is in.
But some of it, surely, is just five years of Mr. Obama. World leaders do not understand what his higher strategic aims are, have doubts about his seriousness and judgment, and read him as unsure and covering up his unsureness with ringing words.”
Now, while Ms. Noonan has, as usual, succinctly defined and presented the case today, she could have written precisely the same premise five years ago. Because other than proving in action his total incapability to handle the job of POTUS, absolutely nothing has changed.
In that regard and furthering the case, is an opinion from Daniel Henninger, also in the Wall Street Journal, as follows: “Let ObamaCare Collapse An established political idea is like a vampire. Facts, opinions, votes, garlic: Nothing can make it die.”
Mr. Henninger then goes on to suggest:“But there is one thing that can kill an established political idea. It will die if the public that embraced it abandons it. Six months ago, that didn't seem likely. Now it does.”
And to me that’s the rub. Because if a long career in sales taught me anything it’s that you can talk, and push, and reason, and plead, and promise, and vow, but if folks don’t readily buy your product, its dead on arrival.
To this day, I remember clearly a campaign I put together to support the sales of equipment from one of the largest manufacturers in the world with state-of-the art, competitive financing. And after months of research, trail runs, experimentation, meetings and feedback from personnel at every level of the client’s organization and insuring every single based was touched, I held a final kick-off meeting.
We all sat around a conference table in the client’s office viewing the information, materials and paraphernalia designed to implement this sales-aid program, head and shoulders above anything the industry had ever seen before. And that’s when I turned to this wizened old professional sales executive directly across from me and asked, ”Well. What do you think?”
He replied, “Frankly, It’s the best program of its type I’ve ever seen presented. But, if the dogs don’t eat the food, there’s nothing I can do about it.”
I mention this because that manager, and Mr. Henninger, are absolutely right. The administration can tout it’s health care tax till its blue in the face, but if folks don’t willingly sign up in droves it’s over and done with. So, this isn’t the time to guess, suppose or predict results. Only time will tell how many dogs ate the food, and that’s all that counts.
That's it for today folks.
Adios
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