obama goodbye

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“On matters of style, swim with the current, on matters of principle, stand like a rock.”

 

Thomas Jefferson

 

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“We become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic.

Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams.”

 

Jimmy Carter

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obama watercolorSigh.

 

Today Barack Obama will no longer be president of the United States. Donald J Trump will become the nation’s 45th president <… whew …. that was painful to type>.

 

Two ships will pass in the night … and oddly … they are both ships of hope & change.

 

One offered hope & change and the other makes most of us …well … hope for change.

Trump is the ultimate hope & change president … we keep hoping he will change and become the president we deserve and need.

 

And, no, I do not want him to be Obama. As any business person will tell you the worst thing you can ever do when you gain a new leader, CEO or President of the company, is to compare & contrast or expect based on the past. You seek to judge based on one’s merits & attributes … because it is not what was but what is and what will be that is important.

 

The burden of the past resides not in our expectation but rather upon the shoulders of the leader to accept and recognize.

 

We who did not vote for Trump, citizens of a country with great potential, don’t ask our new president to stop being who he is but rather hope he will change and become the president we need.

Does that sound incongruent?

 

Maybe.

 

But I have seen time after time a leader step into a role without changing who they are as a person <for good or for bad> and, yet, assume the mantle of responsibility the role demands. In order for Trump to be successful he will have to be Trump, tweets included, but we could hope the job, the responsibility, will change the veneer of leadership from what it is to what it should be.

 

Anyway.

 

Whether our new President will remain an asshat & seemingly oblivious to some basic leadership skills is yet to be determined and I have written far too much about Trump already let me spend a minute or two to share some thoughts on USA’s 44th president <because whether Trump likes it or not he is going to be measured, judged & compared to the 44th president for quite some time>.

 

I haven’t always agreed with everything Obama has decided, surely haven’t agreed with some things he has said and how he has said them, but … damn … I respected the man.

 

While we throw around the word ‘authentic’ in some fairly weird ways these obama humor build 1days … he seemed authentic.

 

 

He cried.

 

He laughed.

obama not really humor 2

 

He was a dad and a husband.

 

He stood with dignity.

 

He treated the presidency with respect. obama maybe humor 3

 

And, as a business guy, while a shitload of people bitched & moaned about ‘executive orders’ and ‘doing things on his own’ I applauded him <on most things>. If your people ain’t getting shit done then … well … you get shit done.

You lead and make people follow.obama humor classified 4

 

Could he have managed that differently?

Sure.

He never really ran a business so there were times he missed some organizational behavior type shit … but the intent? I applauded him.

 

As a business guy I sometimes felt he was certainly too idealistic and held on a little too tightly to his ideals, as well as what he felt was the ideal way to do things. On the other hand … while it sometimes came across as too intellectual or too ‘morally lectury’ <I made that phrase up> he always demanded that we not think transactionally but rather demanded we view our moral imperative as a guide for our transactions and behavior.

 

As a business guy I admired his overlooked, but very important, constructive things he did do. As a business guy I know that getting shit done is more often found in the part of the glacier that is under water … the part no one sees nor do they make an effort to see. Just google Obama’s ‘things done’ and it is a relatively long laundry list of small looking initiatives which have created a foundation for fairer treatment of student loans, shifts in the way healthcare is done <not affordable healthcare but some of the underpinnings, some financial reform, some smaller lower income protection initiatives and more. And if you doubt their value pay attention to the Cabinet hearings because you will hear a number of the potential appointees mentioning expanding some of the less glamourous aspects of the Obama administration. I admire when someone gets the nuts & bolts polished and set in place well because it ain’t glamorous … but we all benefit.

 

As a business guy I was envious of his long view but wanted to chastise him on his sometimes lack of managing the short view. ISIS is a perfect example. The strategy is perfect, the generals agree with the strategy <as one general said “sure, I could take Mosul with 15,000 Marines … but then what would I do with it … it has nothing I want.”> but he failed to manage an impatient country. He failed in that sense because he focused on fear & insecurity <as did all politicians> when the undercurrent of America is … well … impatience. We want to do shit and we want to do shit now. That doesn’t mean you have to do the shit that the employees/people want … just that you have to acknowledge the impatience and manager it.

But even with that example I applaud the fact he never crumbled to public pressure and stuck with what his generals agreed with and the long view of how to ‘win’ <as if there is an actual ‘win’ there> in the middle east.

 

Oh.

With regard to the last point I just made.

obama military stand up for the uniform politics

As a business guy I think that was Obama’s biggest Achilles heel – his lack of understanding with regard to America’s impatience. We are an impatient country. His style never seemed to accommodate our impatience let alone even acknowledge our impatience.

 

And, yet, all that said … I believe we will view all that as ‘was not so bad’ mostly because it seems impossible to imagine Obama behaving the way Trump does.

And that doesn’t say as much about Trump as it does about Obama.

 

Obama is what he is.

 

He never got too high or too low.

He never seemed to overreact and, maybe sometimes, react enough.

He never abandoned decency … nor abandoned the dignity of the office.

He never stopped being a parent & husband even while being a president.

He never … well … never lost his ‘ideal compass’ thru the ego necessary to assume the responsibility of the title.

 

I need to clarify that last point.

 

Someone needs ego to assume leadership responsibility. It is inherent in believing you can do the job. Everyone who assumes the top job has the ego attached. Your character is defined by how you manage your ego. Obama always clearly seemed driven by his ideals and ideas with his ego being the engine to power thru. Conversely, we may want to think about what Obama would have been like if he had led with his ego and … well … whatever ideas followed behind <it is difficult to lead with ego and have ideals … okay … someone led by ego doesn’t have ideology … just ideas>.

 

Anyway.

 

No matter what you think of his politics & policies it is difficult to not respect the way he conducted himself.

 

Instead of being dismissive it may benefit the 45th president to be reflective of the 44th president’s behavior and attitudes.

 

Not to mimic but to learn.

 

As for today?

 

obama blamed for everythingI admit on a day where I feel the overwhelming uncertainty that comes along with a quasi-leader who embraced uncertainty that I almost want to thank Trump because, well, because of him we now maybe better view Obama.

 

I admit on a day where I feel the overwhelming uncertainty that comes along with a quasi-leader who embraced uncertainty that I appreciated the opportunity to hear Christopher Buckley, son of the father of American Conservatism William Buckley, also speak with trepidation … reminding me that my uneasiness represents the majority of American adults – conservatives included.

 

I admit on a day where I feel the overwhelming uncertainty that comes along with a quasi-leader who embraced uncertainty that there is certainly a group of people, a minority of adults, but certainly a group of people who are excited with whatever change Trump offers <and I hope, for all our sake, that they were right and I was wrong>.

 

I admit on a day where I feel the overwhelming uncertainty that comes along with a quasi-leader who embraced uncertainty that I already miss the reliable sense of consistency in policy and leadership that Obama offered us day in and day out.

 

I admit on a day where I feel the overwhelming uncertainty that comes along with a quasi-leader who embraced uncertainty that I still do not understand the vitriol spewed against President Obama. He may have been easy to dislike for some people … but I couldn’t envision how someone could hate him … he just didn’t seem hateable.

 

I admit on a day where I feel the overwhelming uncertainty that comes along with a quasi-leader who embraced uncertainty that sometimes you don’t appreciate something until it is gone.

 

I didn’t always agree with President Obama but in my heart of hearts I never doubted he was a good man with good intentions for a good America, I never doubted he was qualified for the job and I never doubted he would always encourage us to seek out the better versions of ourselves … not the worst version.

so our hearts are broken today trump inauguration obama

 

And, I admit, for all of that I will miss him.

 

And with that I bid good wishes to the original hope & change candidate and welcome the new hope & change candidate … hoping he will change for the better.

 

 

 

 

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Written by Bruce