Rewriting the business plan for America
Presidents-elect typically stick to naming administration appointments and otherwise staying in the background during the transition period between Election Day and Inauguration Day, but Obama has clearly made the calculation that a nation anxious about its economic outlook needs to hear from him differently and more frequently.Speaking a day after the release of a stunning new deficit estimate — that the federal red ink will reach an unprecedented $1.2 trillion this year, nearly three times last year's record — Obama acknowledged some sympathy with those who "might be skeptical" of the stimulus. Vast sums already have been spent or committed by Washington in an attempt — largely unsuccessful so far — to get credit, the lifeblood of the American economy, flowing freely once again.
I just listened to President-elect Obama's speech on the economy on the radio.
Admittedly, this is the first speech I've sat through in its entirety, live. With the new feeling that we all have a great deal to lose, I was all ears.
Because I am more familiar with how business works than how governments run, I can only think that we are about to rewrite the entire business plan and Top 5 goals for the country. This is not a time to talk about a transitional roadmap. This is an emergency, come-to-Jesus meeting.
And as emphasized in his campaign, there is a hole that needs to be filled: the lack of clean, renewable energy. To fill it, we can create (or rather, blow up on a very large scale) our own market - the green energy market. That, if put in motion and roll under its own power, might be the key.
In Obama's speech, I heard talk of putting people to work - leveraging the employees (if you will) that you have onboard and retrofitting them to the tasks and problems at hand. A reallocation of resources.
Imagine creating a new business division and being able to staff it with the people, ideas, resources, and synergy of those who need work. It'd be an underdog story - making it successful - with spirit counterbalancing naïveté. But why not try?
Also, similar to how many companies are operating today, putting resources only to its essential functions, I heard a commitment to supporting the fields of police, fire departments, medical care and education. If true, this puts the welfare of the employees on the same priority as the standing of the business in the marketplace.
What I found very stirring were references to JFK, FDR and Winston Churchill in Obama's speech. The power of allusion and reference do quite a number on the emotions of listener, whether she is listening carefully or not. I am training myself to be a careful listener in all areas of my life these days. And I am keenly, worriedly listening to a president for the first time.
For a moment, I imagined what a member of Congress might feel listening to Obama's "day of reckoning" speech.
Maybe I had been thinking that living the life of an elected official was to take a seat on a fat airplane, look out the high windows, make out the landscape, understand and empathize with the problems of those outside, and call up people to execute important orders.
But now, hearing the dire news, hearing the call to act - to clean up our act - I realize that I must learn, decide, act and lead. For that's what people in the driver's seat are supposed to do.
Let's hope our Congress had a clear signal, and the message cut through the noise of bad habits, partisanship, selfishness, ego and fixations on self-preservation.
