April 1 on Nov 8

Dear President Obama

Nov 8 was the worst April 1 ever.

I warned you about the “Occupy Movement” before it manifested and reminded every year you about Watts.  I have to admit Watts never happen but the sentiment resulted in Donald Trump.

After 8 years, your pathetic record especially in fiscal policies, results in Donald Trump.

Obama, the man in the dark, looking for the light switch and never finding it.

April 1

A survey among historians has placed Franklin Pierce as the most futile President in the history of the United States. J. E. Carter Jr. placed second. G. W. Bush and B. H. Obama were tied for third.  G. W. Bush was futile because he took so much time off while in Office and his decision to invade Iraq.  Obama, because he spent so much time fund raising, yet had such futile Congressional outcomes and he shrank his party to Congressional and State minorities.  

Portions of Obama’s memoirs have leaked.

There was a segment discussing the plan, in 2010, to swap Clinton from Secretary of State to VP and Biden from VP to Secretary of State.  Obama felt that keeping Biden as VP was his impeachment inoculation.  Obama calculated that the Senate could not endorse to be President, the chronic foot-in-mouth Biden, who has been "wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades."(verified by factcheck.org).  He added, any politician from Illinois is aware that litigation can have bad outcomes (Jackson Jr, Blagojevich, Ryan, Walker, Kerner,  Rostenkowski, Reynolds, Savage).

Another segment described the transition meetings, that took place in December 2008, to define the Obama mission statement.  At the State Department, Obama declared the mission statement to be “Don’t screw up.”  For his whole government, there was much thought given. One staffer had mentioned Google’s statement  “Do no evil.”  Obama paused and announced “Do nothing.”

Further on in the memoirs, from a section dealing with 2015, Obama claims how successful this strategy turned out to be.  By not having any fiscal policy at all, during his tenure, but to ride behind the Federal  Reserve’s extraordinary monetary policy initiatives, Obama took sole credit for the “economic recovery” in his State of the Union address of that year.

Regarding the losses in the 2014 Congressional and state elections, Obama only commented that his chances of repealing the 22nd Amendment had diminished since he couldn’t find support from 38 states.  He grudgingly conceded that a third term was not likely, though he was sure he would win.

The Congressional Black Caucus said they would not support another black Presidential candidate unless he/she were “black enough.” One member had blurted that Obama was a coconut – black on the outside, white on the inside.  She was shot down by another representative who said “Obama is an Oreo cookie, a mushy white inside. We want someone who eats grits, collards and fried chicken, four times a week. Someone who doesn’t “dine” with his spouse, in “sniffy” restaurants but rather at earthy soul food hangouts.”  

A Republican said “His whining about Republicans is as good as any black man’s whine”.  A Democrat retorted “Whining is such a waste of time, some white folk can play our jazz, so this dude whines good, big deal, it ain’t Presidential, the cabinet he appointed wasn’t smart enough exploit their position of power, leaving them powerless. Geithner, Treasurer of the United States, gets nothing, Volcker, a mere citizen, gets a law named after him.”

One Southern representative pointed out that Obama smoked, drank homemade beer, played basketball and “did nothing” - pretty much a black man’s life.  A northern Democrat immediately replied, “He’s no black man, he ain’t got no mojo.  He’s let down the Democratic traditions of Roosevelt, Kennedy, Clinton and Spitzer.”

Publishers of the Brothers Grimm are updating their fairy tales.  “The Emperor has no clothes” is  being replaced with, “Obama - the pretense of greatness”. It’s about a President who lives in a bubble, full of people telling him how great and smart he is.  

And then, how he experiences those Brian Williams, Hillary Clinton moments.

Obama detailing

how his administration set fiscal policies, such as great public works projects, that he initiated at a time when interest rates were nearly zero and unemployment levels were really hurting Americans,

how he had generated so much hope and change,

how he got immigration legislation completed by the end of his first year,

how well he eliminated waste from government,

how he built an economy on solid foundations,

how he astutely completed tax reforms,

how he didn’t run for re-election for sake of running,

how he closed Guantanamo in less than a year,

how he never made Americans question the how justice fails people like Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown and Eric Garner and

how the country has benefited from his high speed passenger rail projects.

He cites how his policy of not entering a war without an exit strategy has worked in Libya, ISIL and Nato countries bordering Russia.  

He recounts the greatness of A. Mastromonaco picks for appointments -

Biden successfully navigated gun control legislation,

Shinseki cleaned up Veterans Affairs,

Sebelius smoothly implemented Obamacare and

Holder defended Main Street from Wall Street bullies.

Court intrigue occurs in the description of how his wife and advisor Jarrett conspire to fire Robert Gibbs and how advisor Mastromonaco, driven by her sense of power, fires S. Sherrod.

The story questions the moral motives of a President when he protects corrupt bankers by firing two hardworking females staffers with no justification –S. Bair and E. Warren who worked in the financial interest of the people; supporting a Secretary of the Treasury who poured money into to pockets of the bankers so they could pay themselves bonuses yet not help out people whose homes were underwater; keeping an Attorney General who failed to prosecute any criminal charges against the bankers and sanctioning the Federal Reserve to fail to regulate Wall Street Banks.

The moral of the story is that no one has the President’s back nor does he have the backs of Americans.  He invited historians to dinners at the White House to get a good write up.  After telling him how great he was, they would email each other, debating whether he is should be ranked before or after G. W. Bush, as the more futile President.

Obama has been criticized for reproaching Netanyahu for not accepting a two state solution and saying Israeli Arabs were flocking to the polls, because his own campaigns have been about immigration reform, hope and change - flagrant political pandering. During Obama’s tenure, there has been an increase of foodstamp users (from 31.7  to 46 million) and an increase of students in poverty, in public schools (from 43% to 50%).   

Obama, the man in the dark, looking for the light switch and never finding it.

“I can’t breathe.”

Alyssa Mastomonaco

 

A good person, exceptionally hard working and strives to do her very best.

She worked in secret, failing any sense of transparency or accountability.

Being invisible she was unavailable to good ideas but worse she was irreproachable, even though she should be accountable for her failings.

Obama, you have failed to “trust but verify”.  You have a duty is to validate Alyssas’ calls in your own mind.  Unfortunately you are so inexperienced that you were unable to materially challenge her in any aspect of her work.  She is trustworthy, but surely there was room for improvement and worse, she could be wrong and never know.  With proper transparency, critics like me would know who to fault.  For example, there should be transparent accountability on who did in S. Sherrod, it’s no way to run a government.

Alyssa has strong political skills and is up to the blood sport.  Both she and you lack governing skills, defining what needs to get done and knowing how to get things done.

Neither of you are upset that there are 20 million Americans on Foodstamps, there is so much waste in the exorbitant university fees nor is there any empathy to the quality of jobs in the job market.

You don’t possess the economic vision to understand that, with the deficit situation improving, it is critical to introduce fiscal policies, after a 6 year absence and over reliance on wobbly monetary policy.  L. Summers is practically on a rant.  You don’t understand that “Policy is people”.  You never had fiscal accountability, no sense of carefully minding the store.

You are not being reproached for lack of effort or wrong intentions.  You both put in the hard work but are too young to recognize wisdom. You fail to deal with your shortcomings – there are times when Alyssa was in over her head, you put her there and you didn’t help bail her out. Geithner was in the same situation, he was in an extraordinary, stressful situation and you aren’t the kind of person who wants to hear a confession about being in over my head. As a further example of your shortcoming, you put Decker in a jam. She will need help and you stand empty handed.

Hillary Clinton is far more perceptive, would recognize when someone needs help, she is more effective and wouldn’t put people in a jam and most of all she is a problem solver and knows how to facilitate remedies. These are definitely your shortcomings.

It is noticeable how Alyssa and J. Favreau resent H. Clinton.  I don’t know what they know, but you need help and H. Clinton has got the rolodex that you lack. It is too late to salvage your failure to govern.  These wasted years have a terrible effect on the following generation.  With Clinton’s rolodex you could at least strengthen America.  While to you and Alyssa, the enemy is the Republicans, for me, the people are suffering and you don’t get it.

Trust but verify.

Policy is people.

April 1

Obama opened his speech at the Annual Press Roast, by apologizing for the weak endings of his stories. He explained that jokes were telephoned in and laughter, from eavesdropping NSA agents, drowned out many of the punchlines.

The new faction in the Democratic Party is the “degrowth movement”.  They want Obama to follow Pope Francis by living humbly and work for the people.  Their first demand is to move the “accommodations” in Guantanamo to the White House lawn and have the President live in them. He must eat only food from the White House Garden must desist from political fund raising activity. Obama was game but only if the Members of Congress lived in the Camp as well.  White House Legal Counsel is seeking clarification of “for the people”.

The Pope, the Queen and Nelson Mandela walk into a bar. Mandela says “I say, that chap Obama tried to use us as the start of a joke, but true to form, he couldn’t finish, just like he said hope and change, immigration legislation by the end of the first year, eliminate waste from government, build an economy on solid foundations, tax reforms, he would not run for re-election for sake of running, close Guantanamo in a year…”

The Transportation Department admitted that the administration’s only completed high speed rail project, in Vermont, recorded speeds of 47 mph, lower than the promised high speed of 52 mph. The 120 mph trains roared off the tracks.

Obama had said his administration would hit the ground running. Most of his legislation is still in the starting blocks, 6 years later.

The GOP has shelved plans to impeach Obama.  Results, of focus group studies, conclude that the public would blame the GOP for the decline of America because of Joe Biden screw-ups, if Obama’s impeachment succeeded.

Is this joke is on Robert Gates and Bin Laden?

The CIA reported that Russian sleeper agents had infiltrated the senior ranks of the Treasury Department and American Banks. The then, President Medvedev had denied Russian infiltration. He said “The policy of socialism for the big banks and capitalism for blue collar Americans was a made in America policy.” The CIA alleges that Russian planted policy makers arranged the bailout of AIG and made sure that Tarp funds did not help ordinary Americans whose homes went underwater.

It is well known that President Putin was obsessed with restoring Russia to a world power and schemed for the demise of the US. He is overjoyed for the rise of the 1% and lower standard of living for everyday Americans.  To help Putin, Obama and Congress passed a Farm Bill that subsidizes large agricultural companies and rich farmers while reducing the distribution of Foodstamps to needy Americans.  The Obama Presidency failed to amend the Farm Bill, the two occasions it came up for renewal during his watch. The KGB has agents in the Occupy movement.  Their next step is to fuel Chicago and Stockton ghetto insurgencies to class revolts of the scale of Watts riots.”

In 1914, exactly 100 years ago, the war in the Crimea led to WW I.

In 1980 Russia held the Olympics and invaded Afghanistan.

In 2014 Russia held the Olympics and invaded Crimea.

Obama’s team lacks wise elders who have lived the history.

President Carter and Paul Volcker publicly lament that Obama hasn’t given them a minute yet Obama chooses to meet historians to influence how his record will be viewed.

Obama has mentioned that he had studied Ronald Reagan, who said “Trust but verify”.

Obama never appreciated Reagan’s wisdom. He never sought negative feedback about staff performance to foster good management and thence “smart government”. Obamacare was off the rails, and Obama didn’t have a clue because of the failure to verify. Obama doesn’t verify activities of high risk agencies, such as NSA or CIA and has paid the cost.  Instead of meeting with historians, Obama would be well advised to meet with Inspector Generals of key departments such as Treasury, Justice, Health and Defense, to value their service as watchdogs.  They surely signaled concerns about Obamacare and NSA activity. Obama has handed the Republicans a convincing political platform – “Obama’s dumb government.”

Part of the job of Chief of Staff is to assess staff performance to make sure they make the grade and realize policies. The churning of Chief of Staffs throughout Obama’s Presidency has resulted in failure to protect Obama’s back. Howard Baker and Jim Baker made their boss look good.

The Justice Department failed to protect the backs of Americans by failing to nominate judges for a whole year and failing to criminally prosecute bankers who caused so much misery for home owners with homes underwater.  Obama failed to revise anti-trust legislation to attack the harm caused by too big to fail oligarchies by legally defining a competitive market.  Obama failed to listen to the voices who pointed how weak and wasteful Geithner was – Americans, with homes underwater, are still suffering and that wage czar is still burning a hole in tax payer pockets.

Former President Carter cites that two American institutions, the Military and Universities have rates of rape charges that are only 25% of the rate of charges in the American society because it is in the interest of their leadership to suppress rape charges.He didn’t mention that S. Bair, E. Warren and C. Romer were replaced by inferior male candidates because Obama was running a men’s club. Obama never came to terms with the abuse of power in removing S. Sherrod.  Despite his criticism of Bush’s “group think”, Obama’s Office is a bunch of yes men,

The greatest similarity between G. W. Bush and B. H. Obama is their lack of problem solving skills.  Bush – “the Decider” was helpless when Iraq collapsed, Obama – “in Charge” while oil was spilling into the Gulf.  In retirement, both men fade into obscurity.  Carter and Clinton take on challenges, Carter - the peace accord between Israel and Egypt and the Three Mile Island nuclear meltdown and Clinton - the Dayton Peace Agreement and personal indiscretions.  To this day, they tackle problems.  Obama didn’t recognize the problem solving skills of S. Bair and E. Warren.  He failed to understand that H. Clinton is a problem solver and could contribute to “smart government” as VP.  Obama couldn’t solve the Gulf oil spill, Israeli settlement expansion, the humanitarian atrocities in Syria, redress the too big to fail issue, curb the excessive cost of University education and the sense of survival of so many Americans.  He had no plan for his re-election – just dumb luck.  The rollout of Obamacare was a disaster, temporarily reprieved by dumb luck. The number one problem is to rejuvenate America to economic prosperity yet Obama will be known for assembling the most mediocre economic teams, preferring V. Jarrett to L. Summers.

Obama’s dumb, shallow government and inability to persuade swing Republicans have made Americans tired, poor, homeless - huddled masses yearning to breathe free.

Examples of a failing Presidency

How could you let a bill to fund foodstamps die in the House?

Your own mother raised you on foodstamps! 

It is during your tenure, that the use of foodstamps have risen the most.

What do you stand for? What are your priorities? 

Justice

Detainee’s despair has pushed them onto death’s doorstep at Guantanamo.

It is unsatisfactory to have 41 vacancies for judges with no nominations.

We are reaching the statue of limitations to prosecute bankers/businessmen for the financial debacle of 2008 after you and Holder established two task forces to address/stall the issue.  There are millions of Americans whose homes went underwater and were wronged by the remedy which allowed bankers to put public money into bonuses because Geithner was such a wimp.  Is Justice socialism for the rich and capitalism for the poor?

The Economy – social unrest

The second great depression was met with innovative monetary policy and failing fiscal policy.

The stimulus package wasn’t appropriate for the problem at hand and fueled political discord in the partisan way it was passed. The Executive then set no fiscal policy for many years.  It’s current fiscal policy is sequestration?!

There has been evidence of lower class frustration in the UK, France, Sweden, China and Brazil. I feel there is enough contagion that will affect America.  I predict a “not guilty” verdict in the Geo Zimmerman/Trayvon Martin case would ignite it but I have a mixed record on social unrest predictions.  I predicted the Occupy Movement but projected it to become Watts Riots, which didn’t happen.  You’ve got to admit you didn’t see the Occupy Movement coming, I just felt the injustice.

I don’t buy Emanuel’s remedy of education being the opium of the masses to address the 5% of anarchists in Chicago.  The better answer is economic prosperity and you don’t have a clue how to achieve it.

You will be remembered for the failing bridges, bankrupt cities, wages going backwards, the injustice to seniors who were short changed on their pension plans and the first generation of parents who despaired that their children would be worse off than them.

Your Executive is like someone who is ill but doesn’t yet know they are sick.

Your government has no agenda and can’t keep up with the paradigm shift in economics, politics and power, let alone outline policy for main street.  You never kept your first term promise to work on the economy every day or if you did your efforts have been pathetic. You are not the right man for the time and you failed to assemble the best minds in America to address the problems.

You need a private economic summit to discuss the changes in economics with L. Summers, P. Krugman,  J. Siglizt, A. Greenspan and J. Galbraith.  What drivers does government have to navigate the economy nowadays?

Once the “what” has been defined you need problem solvers like James Baker, Bill & Hillary Clinton, Robert Gates, Nancy Pelosi and Leon Panetta to tell you how to do it.

The Office of the President truly needs a Department of Government Affairs, which is in touch with every member of Congress to lobby for the priority bills, such as the Foodstamps bill.  There is a paradigm shift in the power structure of Congress and you haven’t placed sufficient resources to deal with it.  Your election team was successful in finding the road to re-election.  It is their analysis of Congress that is required to salvage your Presidency.

We have seen cowardice from you in dealing with the injustice to S. Sherrod and your pronounced failure to build an economic team brimming with leadership and confidence.

These are big strategic ideas well beyond the scope of Valery Jarrett.  We still fail to understand her reading of the facts to justify firing Robert Gibbs or Shirley Sherrod. 

Hope and Change, Rebuild the Middle Class, Yes we can.

I told you so.

Minding the Store

Your Presidency will be noted for not minding the store.
There is no Obama agenda because your style of management is to micro-manage so staff is not empowered.  It is not team Obama, it is just Obama. 

Critical positions, like the Chief of Staff or Economic advisers are revolving door positions. Their views are undermined because they don’t have a track record of Presidential support, they are merely transients.  Your staff operates like the Toronto Raptors, a new line-up every year, look where the Raptor’s finish.  It is ironic how Obama, the Candidate criticized G. W. Bush’s advisers of group think yet Obama, the President only chooses replacements from his tiny inner circle.

Your selections are hard working but are not empowered to be effective.  The terminations of Robert Gibbs and Shirley Sherrod appear to be done with a capricious flick of power yet poor performance is not always corrected.  Why have there been so many Chiefs of Staff and changes in Economic advisors?  There must be some kind of interference on those in the position, to prevent them from doing their job in a manner which pleases you. There is no reason to take these jobs, only to be undermined.  It is clear that the source of interference, as well intentioned as it may be, is part of the cause of the failure to govern.

The people selected have not demonstrated an adeptness to handle the levers of power.
The failure to provide a fiscal policy has been harped upon by many Governors at the Federal Reserve.  The nation needs a fiscal policy. Your staff churn may be a contributing factor in the failure to govern affairs of the nation.

You are not able to evaluate staff performance.  You had no conviction on the outstanding effectiveness of Sheila Bair or Elizabeth Warren and substituted non-descript men. You didn’t pull the trap door on T. Geithner or E. Holder whose performance could be considered suspect if not failing.  You went a whole year without nominating a judge to vacancies and this year of the 81 vacancies have only nominated 37 judges.  This is clearly not doing the people’s business after 5 years on the job.

You must know, that I don’t think you can get anything done.  I think Hillary Clinton can get things done.  What’s the difference?
She knows how to pick good people. You don’t.
She knows a lot of people.  You don’t.  She has the A list, you have the B list.
She empowers her people.  You don’t.  Your staff is second guessed by V. Jarrett.
She knows how to problem solve.  You don’t. 
She understands the levers of power.  You don’t.
She sets an agenda.  You don’t.
I think you need Hillary Clinton’s help.  America needs to get things done in your remaining time.

Your record is of broken promises "Hope and Change", "Return of the Middle Class".  You really don't know how to get there from here.

You must break your bad habits and change.  Cut back on the micro-managing by empowering staff.  Reduce the influence of the interference.  So many of the current distraction issues could be handled by an empowered Chief of Staff, but because you micro-manage you are stuck addressing issues that drag you down.  You fail to select team members who demonstrate wisdom or adeptness at pulling the levers of power. My opinion is that V. Jarrett is an amateur compared to L. Summers or A. Greenspan. 
You don’t agree, but look at your record. America needs a fiscal policy.

I told you so.

Customer Service

When you were an educator, I imagine you had little empathy for
students to whom you gave an F.
You are on track to get an F grade as President.

One of your early messages was that the best antidote to the big
government/small government debate was smart government.
You have failed to demonstrate smart government.
A characteristic of successful companies is good management. The route to smart government is good management.  Management – the art of getting things done through people.

You are not getting trusted feedback about negative staff performance to foster good management and thence smart government.
I have constantly told you, that part of the job of Chief of Staff is to measure staff performance to make sure they are up to standard and enforce policies.
The churning of Chief of Staffs has resulted in failure to protect your back.
The current distraction issues could be mitigated by enforcing a high
performance standard.
I have been critical of Axelrod, Emanuel, Geithner and Holder.
You are paying for their failings

The Federal Reserve has been force to resort to Quantitative Easing because of the absence of Fiscal Policy.  You have demonstrated that you haven’t learned enough economics to understand this.

You have not learned to deftly exercise the levers of power.
Desperate times call for desperate measures
  Hire the best lobbyists Government can afford.
  Resort to bribery, use stealth earmarks.
  Build an insurgency department to marshal Congress to get things done.
  Look, you have a winning election team.
  Use this team find the votes for each bill.  It must be multi-dimensional, building specific coalitions for each bill, gender, age, geographic, economic, race.  Whatever it takes, get something done.

You are out of touch.
Americans are a proud people who like to carry their heads high.
You are oblivious of so many who are frustrated, forced to be humble and meek.
You don’t know the price of a loaf of bread or a gallon of milk. You only know statistics.  Don’t believe inflation is less than 1%, ask why has the price of a loaf of bread and gallon of milk tripled since you entered office. I speak from my experience. When your advisor gives you the answer (they will likely say it’s just not so.) challenge him/her.  You are too used to being spoon fed.  People in your circles don’t care about the price of a loaf of bread or gallon of milk.

Enough rhetoric, let’s see some small deeds that provide hope.  You have spent more time electioneering (the 2010 mid-terms, the 2012 Presidential) than Presidential Executive matters.  Enough, you have no business meddling with the 2014 mid-terms.

Your rolodex for new staff is now depleted.  Check with Hillary Clinton, ask her to be a consultant. Use her problem solving skills to clean house and tap into her rolodex. I suggested a long time ago to
switch her with Biden.  You don’t know how to get things done through people.

I have told you before.  I work with Hispanics, Filipinos and Blacks. Only the Blacks whine and complain because it is part of their culture.  The rest of us resent them.  Nothing worse than a Black’s whining and bitching.  Deal with it!

Follow the new Pope’s example, strive to serve the people.

Unlike an arrogant academic dishing out an F, I feel the country suffers that you are heading for an F.  I’m surprised the downtrodden are rioting in Sweden.  I felt the 99% solidarity with the Occupy
Movement.  I still feel the rumbling that riots could erupt in your remaining 3 years. As big government is further tarnished, just ask Emanuel about the 5% in Chicago that perpetuate anarchy.

I told you so.