A Sense of Urgency

The Common Trait of Highly Productive People, Companies, and Countries is a sense of urgency. In just the past 24 hours we have had a human tragedy in Haiti. No one knows how many people have been killed by the earthquake that has devestated their capital city, Port- au- Prince. The president of the United States has said that aid will be sent immediately. CNN has already reported the sighting of American military personnel. That is an example of responding with a sense of urgency.

America’s response to the bombing of Pearl Harbor was accomplished with a sense of urgency. Henry Paulson’s message to Congress for aid to the banking community was quickly answered with TARP. However, America’s response to the devastation brought on by Hurricane Katrina did not show the same sense. California’s serious debt problems have not been addressed with a sense of urgency.

Corporations have also had mixed responses to their predicaments. General Motors did not apply sensible action to their faltering sales for years. That is a company that didn’t need urgency. All they needed was attention and they failed. Union Carbide showed no sense of urgency in the chemical spill in Bhopal, India.

The entertainment and news industries are fast to respond. With falling rating it didn’t take long for NBC to determine that Jay Leno’s primetime show had to move to late night or be canceled. The making of Avatar took two years (excluding the writing). All the networks have significant reporters in Haiti in just 24 yours. All of them had reports on their news programs within hours of the earthquake.

We need a sense of urgency in getting our economy functioning properly. The politicians would rather squabble. Their behavior ought to give us the motivation to show them the door. Unfortunately democracy does not provide a sense of urgency.

America Wants Accomplishments Not Words

“Words! Words! I’m so sick of words!” from My Fair Lady.

President Barack Obama is a fabulous speaker. His Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech in Oslo only reinforces that fact. He told us all his views of America in a well worded presentation. Many outspoken Republicans have said complimentary things about the speech. None the less, Rush Limbaugh may have his hopes fulfilled. President Obama is struggling to find some success.

It has been reported that President Obama wants to spend $200 Billion of TARP money on a second round of government sponsored stimulus. The first $$787 Billion has not been spent. It’s obvious that the money spent to date was not used for “shovel ready” projects. “There are plenty of ways to stimulate small businesses, including three-quarters of the stimulus money we have not spent yet without adding billions and billions in debt through TARP, which is basically a line of credit,” Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona, Obama’s opponent in the 2008 presidential election, said at a news conference.

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are viewed inconsistently by Obama. In his desire to please anti-war Democrats and please moderate Americans his position is a moving target. When the war in Iraq was going poorly he stressed his opposition to the 2007 troop surge but later when the surge was successful he grudgingly acknowledged success. Just last week, in a speech at West Point, the plan to stop the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan will be accomplished using a 30,000 man troop surge but without using the word “surge.” To please those opposing the war he says that troop withdrawals will begin in July 2011 but the secretaries of defense and state say that we will only review our commitment on that date.

Health care for all Americans has been a cornerstone of Obama’s vision. He says he wants it to be deficit neutral, cut costs, and improve quality. The reality is that he has never outlined his vision of how to achieve these goals. There is nothing in the plans proposed by either the House of Representatives or the Senate that addresses these objectives. Instead there is a Democratic Party objective to pass a law for the president’s signature even if no objectives are met.

Few of us fully understand climate change issues. Politicians are trying to impose more control everywhere in the world to save humanity. It’s a nice goal as long as it doesn’t cost me any money is the view of most people. Neither Al Gore nor Barack Obama have made the case in ways that most Americans will understand. I understand air and water pollution but I do not understand the need to control CO2. Cap and trade? I do not understand this idea at all. I oppose things I do not understand.

Unless the president delivers some real accomplishments he will have a difficult time being re-elected in 2012.