Read the Washington Monthly article by Kevin Drum:
Bush styles himself a "CEO president," but the world is full to bursting with CEOs who have goals they would dearly love to attain but who lack either the skill or the fortitude to make them happen. They assign tasks to subordinates without making sure the subordinates are capable of doing them — but then consider the job done anyway because they've "delegated" it. They insist they want a realistic plan, but they're unwilling to do the hard work of creating one — all those market research reports are just a bunch of ivory tower nonsense anyway. They work hard — but only on subjects in their comfort zone. If they like dealing with people they can't bring themselves to read all those tedious analyst's reports, and if they like numbers they can't bring themselves to spend time chattering with distributors about their latest prospect.
And most important of all, weak CEOs are unwilling to recognize bad news and perform unpleasant tasks to fix it — tasks like like confronting poorly performing subordinates or firing people. Good CEOs suck in their guts and do it anyway.and the choice comments below it, such as:
Great post, Kevin. The biggest problem with Bush is not that he's an idiot (though it's fun to think so), or that he's utterly corrupt (some of his cabal...) or evil (an utterly ridiculous term). He's actually none of those things (well, he's not exactly clear of those charges) but his biggest problem or weakness is despite all the bravado and hype, he's really not a very courageous leader. He's fundamentally afraid to admit a mistake, afraid to change course or even adapt as facts change and really hasn't done much of anything that has been politically risky. All of his "bold" initiatives come after being quite sure there is plenty of support for it. Even if that means misleading the public or other leaders to garner that support.
He is every bit the mediocre (at best) CEO he always hads been.Full page:
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2004_05/003829.php
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