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Thursday, September 22, 2005

By Ralf Seiffe

OPINION - Watching the president give his Jackson Square reconstruction speech last Thursday made me think of another president from Texas and the specter of the Great Society.

The massive $200 billion proposal to salvage what’s lying  at the bottom of Lake New Orleans and to rebuild the rest of the Gulf Coast was as striking as anything I remember from the 36th president.

The accumulation of the failed offensive at Social Security, the likely MIA tax plan and the opacity of Judge Roberts’ positions may help explain the president’s falling poll numbers.

It’s the good guys who are reassessing their regard for Mr. Bush and many of us are beginning to suspect presidents from Texas.

The president’s real task, then, is to convince his pals, not his opponents that it’s right to spend the money. The president’s usual enemies are already on board. The victims who cried racism are already trying to return. Their genius mayor has invited them back despite the lack of food, sanitation and worst of all, electricity to make ice and run blenders.

Democrats won’t resist; they see this as an opportunity to ratchet up the federal government.

They recognize, as Ronald Reagan did, that the best place to find evidence of immortality isn’t with the voodoo merchants on Bourbon Street but at the federal building when undead employees emerge every day at 4:38 P.M.

The only local opposition to putting the water back where it came from might be this year’s crawfish crop which has had the run of uptown since the levy broke.

Pressure is building to spend, spend, spend but before this situation gets totally out of hand, the president should begin to think less like a LBJ and more like a MBA.

Conservatives worry that the president will confuse spending with management as a way to demonstrate his competence as a leader.

He’s a numerate graduate of a prestigious business school--the first president so qualified--so we have a reasonable expectation that he might handle this venture with skill, rather than relying exclusively on our money.

Peter F. Drucker, the dean of management thinkers, and a scholar with whom the president should be familiar, has identified a number of attributes of the “American CEO”. Drucker writes that there is work that only the CEO can do and that it’s work that the CEO must do. The president would do well to pay heed.

Citing the establishment of the Jesuit Order in 1536 (the original religious right?), Drucker tells us that the modern organization is designed to have an effect on the “Outside”.

He defines the Outside as society, the economy, media and public opinion. Results only occur in the Outside while the organization, in this case the federal government, only generates costs. The CEO defines what meaningful results are and serves as the link between the Inside and the Outside.

Many conservatives believe that the president has grasped about half of Drucker’s advice. He has told us what the inside needs--at least $500 from every man, woman and child--but he hasn’t really defined the results he expects on the Outside very well.

Platitudes aren’t convincing so persuading Americans that we should gladly send that money to an area which will surely flood again is an estimable task for an honest man.

It’s obvious this task is already consuming the president; he’s made five trips to the scene and will make more. He’s certainly learning a lot and coming to understand how to most effectively deal with the damage.

To help the rest of us understand what he already grasps, he should consider creating a business plan to help explain.

He needs to make a statement to the nation on how the inside--the government--will provide meaningful results to the “Outside”. This is a statement should personally draft, with minimal assistance. It should set the objectives and the means as well as the tone and manner in which the feds will operate.

Like any good CEO, the president should widely distribute this vision. Organizations succeed when everybody understands and accepts the objective. Lining up his normal supporters is the lowest level of acceptable performance because the Democrats are waiting to ambush any plan that accrues credit to the president and Republicans.

As a compassionate conservative, the president should also use this opportunity to grapple with the paradigms of government he believes need replacement. School vouchers, strict accountability for spending and a direct confrontation with the Democrat’s plantation system are great places to start.

If the president believes and can support his case, strong advocacy will produce a byproduct called leadership.

George Bush has twice won election as America’s chief executive. History’s dealt him a number of bad hands and now he needs to make a strong demonstration of his leadership to retain confidence. As tempting as it must be to rely on the vast resources of the federal government to resolve this crisis, it will work much better if Americans know the definition of success is the work product and the objective of the president.

As Drucker suggests, this is the sort of work only a CEO can do and it’s work that the CEO must do.

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Ralf Seiffe advises business start-ups and product launches from Chicago, Illinois and is a political analyst and columnist for the Illinois Leader.