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.