This morning’s New York Times carries a piece by Jeff Zeleny and Jim Rutenberg on Barack Obama’s emerging management style:
The skill will become more important should he win the presidency, and his style is getting added attention as the country absorbs the lessons of President Bush’s tenure in the Oval Office. Mr. Bush’s critics, including former aides, have portrayed him as too cloistered, too dependent on a small coterie of trusted aides, unable to distinguish between loyalty and competence, and insufficiently willing to adjust course in the face of events that do not unfold the way he expects.
So what does the NYT say of Obama’s emerging style?
Mr. Obama’s style so far is marked by an aversion to leaks and public drama and his selection of a small group of advisers who have exhibited discipline and loyalty in carrying out his priorities…
***
He delegates many decisions, and virtually all tasks, to a core group that oversees a sprawling, yet centralized operation in his Chicago campaign headquarters…
***
Most high-level gatherings involving Mr. Obama are held either in his kitchen or at an office away from campaign headquarters, and are expected to unfold in an orderly manner. Written agendas and concise briefings are preferred.
He does not stir dissent simply for dissent’s sake, but often employs a Socratic method of discussion, where aides put ideas forward for him to accept or reject. Advisers described his meetings as “un-Clintonesque,†a reference to the often meandering, if engrossing, policy discussions Bill Clinton presided over when he was president…
***
If a presidential campaign is intended to be a test-run for the presidency, his chief priorities are the words in his speeches, messages in his television advertising and policy pronouncements. On other matters, even if he disagrees, he often allows himself to be overruled.
Mr. Obama was not thrilled with a campaign slogan, “Change We Can Believe In,†that was unveiled last September. And he did not initially like the campaign’s blue and white logo  intended to appear like a horizon, symbolizing hope and opportunity  saying he found it too polished and corporate.
“He made his concern clear, but said, ‘We have bigger fish to fry here,’ †recalled David Axelrod, the campaign’s chief strategist who was behind the logo’s design.
Given that the paper starts by mentioning the lessons — or criticisms — of President Bush’s management style in the Oval Office, it is almost self-parody of the paper’s bias that it then glosses over Obama’s aversion to leaks and his small circle of advisers. The NYT was not shy about emphasizing the same things about Bush’s 2000 campaign. The paper was also sniffy about Bush’s penchant for delegation, questioning whether that style would work in such divided times. The un-Clintonesque meetings, the focus on the contents of his speeches and ads, even the telling logo anecdote — they’re all there in the NYT’s campaign reports on the 2000 campaign.
In short, Obama seems to be developing a management style similar to that of George W. Bush’s winning 2000 campaign. But the New York Times seems to be hoping no one will notice.
Comment by nishizonoshinji on 6/16 @ 6:42 am #
you see what you want to see, Karl.
this is something differernt.
go off and lie in the ground, republican dinosaurs, and make oil for the next generation.
;)
Comment by serr8d on 6/16 @ 6:57 am #
My favorite quote about teh ageing:
“Don’t pick a fight with an old man, because he will kill you.†(Steinbeck I think…)
That’s been truth since humans started hanging around together, living in the same old caves until over the centuries the cave floors would rise because of the trash buildup.
Now we humans are still living and dying. And now, old men are ridiculed for their looks instead of listened to for their wisdom.
But, everyone will eventually wind up in the same place, raising the floors for whatever comes along next.
Unless of course Nishi’s nanobot revolution will make us all live forever…
Is that why you cling to only science as savior, Nishi, and bash those who would have wider beliefs, because you’ve a massive fear in knowing that you are gonna age and die just like everyone else?
Comment by Darleen on 6/16 @ 7:06 am #
this is something differernt. (sic)
and nishi sneers at people of faith.
The child was born without the irony gene. I wonder if replacing it is on her Science Godhead agenda.
Comment by Mikey NTH on 6/16 @ 7:15 am #
It may be part of it serr8d.
Certainly she could use all the time she can get to accumulate some wisdom.
Karl, that was interesting.
Comment by ThomasD on 6/16 @ 7:18 am #
Or perhaps the NYT reporter didn’t do any actual research for the article. Instead merely going back to the old article about candidate Bush and ‘mad-libbing’ the necessary identifiers. But the NYT is known for it’s high journalistic standards, so I kinda doubt that.
Comment by Carin -BONC on 6/16 @ 7:26 am #
Just because you dinosaurs (white collar Rethugs) don’t get the nuanced difference between Bushitler and O!™ doesn’t mean it isn’t there.
Comment by JD on 6/16 @ 7:36 am #
By calling Baracky something different, and something new, it seems that they believe if they say it long enough, and often enough, it might come true.
Comment by McGehee on 6/16 @ 7:44 am #
Sure it is.
Comment by Log Cabin on 6/16 @ 7:47 am #
This is something different, all right…
Something we have not had in the White House before. The Russians, on the other hand, had a few people like Obama early last century. You know, those guys that eventually replaced the Romanovs?
Change you can believe in!
Comment by SarahW on 6/16 @ 8:10 am #
I’m going with the re-made dress theory.
News readers don’t mind being taken in, if the fabric looks decent.
Comment by happyfeet on 6/16 @ 8:27 am #
Like most
presidential candidateslightweight community organizers who leverage a book deal and a convention speech into a presidential campaign with the assistance of NPR and other propaganda organs, Mr. Obama is developing his executive skills on the fly…Comment by Karl on 6/16 @ 8:36 am #
nishi:
If you mean an assertion untouched by argument on your part, yes.
Comment by geoffb on 6/16 @ 8:37 am #
Ah, Obama is the poorly done remake.
“Who’s that comin’ Obam the Delegator”
Comment by Rob Crawford on 6/16 @ 8:38 am #
I thought that was the same-old same-old from her? No argument, just assertions.
As for Obama — he’s a lightweight. Hopefully that’ll become clear to everyone before election day.
Comment by Great Mencken's Ghost on 6/16 @ 9:10 am #
Actually, that’s more like Nixon’s old style…
Comment by alppuccino on 6/16 @ 9:34 am #
I got this. Are you sitting down? I’m with nishi. This is something different:
This the NYT fabricating the story that Obama delegates when, in fact, he is just somebody’s boy and he is the one being delegated to on an hourly basis.
“Hi Barack. It’s your delegator. Don’t do the town hall meetings with McCain. We haven’t perfected the earpiece yet. Oh and my shirts? I told you to tell them “no starch”. Take them back ok?”
Comment by cranky-d on 6/16 @ 10:10 am #
No one has said it yet, so I will.
RACIST!!!
Comment by markg8 on 6/16 @ 10:13 am #
Obama seems to be developing a management style similar to that of George W. Bush’s winning 2000 campaign. But the New York Times seems to be hoping no one will notice.
Well of course they’re hoping no one will notice what they write. That’s why they published it in the paper.
Here’s some other brilliant insights for you. Winning campaigns don’t have much drama. There isn’t any reason for finger pointing or grumbling to the press. Winning campaigns usually are disciplined operations.
It’s apparent both Bush and Obama like campaigning. My guess if they’d lost they’d like it less. That has little to do with actual governing. They’re two different jobs.
Both Bill Clinton and Obama are policy wonks. Both are intellectually curious and enjoy learning. Bush isn’t intellectually curious and thinks he knows enough to make his gut decisions work. Jimmy Carter micromanaged the WH, going as far as settling a tennis court schedule dispute himself. Obama doesn’t seem to have those problems.
Comment by McGehee on 6/16 @ 10:19 am #
That’s actually funnier without the sarcasm.
Comment by I disagree with "I disagree" on 6/16 @ 10:20 am #
I seems everyone is calling it in today. I don’t thing we’ve even had a denouncement yet today.
Here’s a bit from Byron York’s new article (paper version, subscription required) on the Obamanator:
Comment by CArin -BONC on 6/16 @ 10:21 am #
Stupid sockpuppet.
Comment by happyfeet on 6/16 @ 10:21 am #
Where this idea coming from that the Baracky campaign doesn’t have any drama? Baracky is a queenier drama queen than Paula Abdul even. Except for Paula likes Jewish people..
Comment by McGehee on 6/16 @ 10:23 am #
When that doesn’t work, he’ll set his sights on the papacy.
Comment by alppuccino on 6/16 @ 10:25 am #
Obama is only intellectually curious to the point of not needing to know how many states there are in the Union. Or whether Iran is a tiny country and not a grave threat, but definitely a grave threat when it’s politically expedient, but tiny like cuba. And he’s just curious enough to invent a new use for the breathalizer in certain asthma situations. In other words, he’s an idiot.
Comment by Christopher Taylor on 6/16 @ 10:25 am #
Yeah, sure. Mister changenitude, King Change who brings it up in every speech didn’t like change as a campaign slogan. Sure.
Comment by CArin -BONC on 6/16 @ 10:27 am #
Baracky is a queenier drama queen
YEA! I can now denounce Happyfeet.
Comment by Rob Crawford on 6/16 @ 10:28 am #
Uh-huh. *Sure* he isn’t.
Somehow I get the feeling you define “intellectually curious” as “mouths the right liberal platitudes”.
Comment by CArin -BONC on 6/16 @ 10:32 am #
“Intellectually curious” in this sense prolly means you listen to NPR and read the New York Times. Plus, you keep a copy of “Meditations” by Marcus Aurelius on your beside table.
Comment by happyfeet on 6/16 @ 10:36 am #
I are denounced. But for real Baracky couldn’t have gone to that radical hatey church for twenty years if he didn’t like him some good drama. And also he married that woman who has conniptions about fruit. Never a dull moment I bet really. If only they made more money maybe they could get a bit more centered, but that’s why it’s kind of sobering to think that if Baracky got elected president he’d actually end up taking a pay cut. But at least they’d get a reprieve from that whole fruit thing.
Comment by CArin -BONC on 6/16 @ 10:40 am #
Happy, you should be pleased to hear that I rescued a turtle yesterday. It was crossing the road, and we all know how that often turns out. We let it go by our lake. No nearby roads to cross by us.
Comment by SarahW on 6/16 @ 10:42 am #
“he’ll set his sights on the papacy.”
Baracky, be satisfied, now that you are pope. There’s nothing else that you can become.”
“I have to think about that,” said theBaracky. He was not satisfied. His desires would not let him sleep. He kept thinking what she wanted to become next. Then the sun came up and the tides came in. “Aha,” He thought, as the sun streamed in the waffle-house. “Couldn’t I cause the sun to rise?” Then Hebecame very grim and said to Zombie Tim Russert, I want to become like God!
Zombie Tim Russert, still mostly asleep, was so startled that he fell off his legs. “Oh, Baracky,” he said, “go on as you are and remain pope.”
“No,” said Baracky, tearing open his bodice. “I will not be quiet. I can’t stand it when I see the sun and the moon coming up, and the ocean levels, and I can’t cause them to rise or stop rising. I want to become like God!”
“Oh, Baracky,” said theZombie Russert. “America can’t do that. It can make you emperor and pope, but it can’t do that.”
But Baracky went to America, and the law blogs, and Dkos, and asked to be made God.
BAZAAAAP!
And he was back sitting on a pile of Community Organizer Leaflets.
The end.
Comment by SarahW on 6/16 @ 10:47 am #
Addendum:
A pile of community organizer leaflets in Kenya. And a tiger jumped out and ate his waffle.
Comment by N. O'Brain on 6/16 @ 10:54 am #
“#
Comment by McGehee on 6/16 @ 10:23 am #
And in each successive office, he has concluded that he did not have enough power to get the job done, so now he is running for the most powerful office in the land.
When that doesn’t work, he’ll set his sights on the papacy.”
Then he changes his name to Ming The Merciless and tries to conquer the universe.
Comment by happyfeet on 6/16 @ 11:26 am #
Carin, you’re a beautiful person I think. I looked for turtles in New Jersey but no luck. I did see a deer and some fishes and a dragonfly though, so I’m pretty sated on the nature thing for awhile.
Comment by JD on 6/16 @ 11:30 am #
markg8 is a fun troll.
Comment by MayBee on 6/16 @ 11:30 am #
Both Bill Clinton and Obama are policy wonks.
Is there some evidence somewhere that Obama is a policy wonk?
Comment by alppuccino on 6/16 @ 11:33 am #
I was on the bike path and came upon a snapping turtle as big as a yugo (2-door) laying its eggs. It was then going to bury the eggs and leave them.
I reported the turtle to Family Services.
And when I say “came upon”, of course, I mean “happened upon”. I’VE NEVER SEEN THAT TURTLE BEFORE IN MY LIFE!
Comment by happyfeet on 6/16 @ 11:34 am #
It says he’s a wonk as long as nothing’s on ESPN. What a shallow, tivoless man he must be.
Comment by SarahW on 6/16 @ 11:34 am #
I “saved” a lot of box turtles when I was a kid. They always seemed to be able to climb out of the tub and get out the french doors overnight. Sucker feet, I guess.
Comment by happyfeet on 6/16 @ 11:37 am #
Oh. Snapping turtles are pretty terrifying creatures, what with all the snapping and all. I haven’t gotten bit yet by my little sliders, cause we have a pretty good relationship, but it’s not something I worry about really. I think nishi may have had a snapper at one point. That’s really brave I think.
Comment by alppuccino on 6/16 @ 11:37 am #
french doors
elitist
Comment by alppuccino on 6/16 @ 11:39 am #
I think nishi may have had a snapper at one point.
Probably still does.
happy, I know you’re not fond of golf, but you teed that one up ever so nicely. Thank you.
Comment by CArin -BONC on 6/16 @ 11:40 am #
Last year, when we first move out here (to the country, if you will) we found TONS Of baby snapping turtles. They were kinda cute. Really small.
Comment by SarahW on 6/16 @ 11:42 am #
That’s ok Al, your teenage son probably put it there on the shore.
Some amateur fisherman hauled out a snapper of startling proportions from the UR lake, once. It was about big enough to ride on. The hapless fisherman left it on the bridge and it hissed as you walked by and it was upside down. It was like that blade runner test. It was like the Kitty Genovese of turtles. I guess I’m not a replicant because after two circles around the lake, I figured I better summon one of those guys who drive around on golf carts. I felt inhumane for some days after that.
Comment by Karl on 6/16 @ 12:03 pm #
Reknowned historians like Andrew Roberts and Paul Johnson would disagree, as would Kathleen Parker.
Of course, to discover that, you might have to be intellectually curious yourself.
Comment by nishizonoshinji on 6/16 @ 12:06 pm #
Unless of course Nishi’s nanobot revolution will make us all live forever…
and still look young ;)
Comment by nishizonoshinji on 6/16 @ 12:07 pm #
i have a snapping turtle.
i got him out of the water jump at high prarie horse park.
his name is gamera.
Comment by nishizonoshinji on 6/16 @ 12:08 pm #
he is not a tame turtle, like feets’ turtles.
Comment by alppuccino on 6/16 @ 12:10 pm #
Karl,
Reading books has nothing to do with intelligence. Writing books is where the smartness is. Sheesh!
Comment by Mitch on 6/16 @ 12:36 pm #
Karl, Andrew Roberts is a tool. Jacob Weisberg’s review of his latest book and its massive errors is here http://www.slate.com/id/2162837/
Roberts is the Mike Brown of history and accuracy. It should trouble, well…anyone, that the President loves a book written by a proponent of the “White Man’s Burden.”
I denounce myself for looking this up
Comment by Rob Crawford on 6/16 @ 12:56 pm #
A tiger? In Africa?
Comment by Rob Crawford on 6/16 @ 12:57 pm #
Depends on what you mean by that phrase. Do you mean the popular interpretation of it, or do you mean it the way Kipling intended?
Comment by Mitch on 6/16 @ 1:10 pm #
How about: the way Andrew Roberts sees it, i.e. the English Empire should be replaced by an American one. Personally, I’m not a huge fan of Rhodesia or Imperialism, but Mr.Roberts is
Comment by Christopher Taylor on 6/16 @ 1:31 pm #
Plus, you keep a copy of “Meditations†by Marcus Aurelius on your beside table.
…unread.
Ace of Spades points out that even as a community organizer Obama didn’t accomplish much. That’s somewhat acceptable in a volunteer activist, but as a president? That’s not delegating. It’s sloth and inability.
Comment by SarahW on 6/16 @ 2:07 pm #
Rob Crawford – the tiger was an oblique reference to a popular ear-worm tune about Lions and Tigers Only in Kenya ( by the same guy who did “badger badger”.
Comment by SarahW on 6/16 @ 2:10 pm #
Japanese kids sing it on Youtube.
There is a nifty live-action version.
Comment by SarahW on 6/16 @ 2:11 pm #
I like the part with the little knife and fork
Comment by SarahW on 6/16 @ 2:15 pm #
And in fact, there are tigers in Kenya, in the zoos at both Mombasa and Nairobi.
The Bazzzap! must have been right into the middle of a pile of leaflets at the Monbasa zoo, center of Community organizers. The tiger felt insulted and taunted, and bounded up, and Obama-nom’d a waffle lunch
Comment by SarahW on 6/16 @ 2:20 pm #
Fixed live-action Kenya link – had an extra bit in there.
Comment by B Moe on 6/16 @ 4:07 pm #
Meanwhile, back in the real world:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-06-10-ohio-lethal-injection_N.htm?csp=34
Comment by maggie katzen on 6/16 @ 8:02 pm #
gawd, B Moe, just cause a lot of his supporters like dudes that look good on t-shirts, you gotta get all judgmental. a body can’t forgive mass murder because of teh prettiness?
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Comment by Log Cabin on 6/16 @ 7:47 am #
Change you can believe in! Or else!
There. That’s better
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