The Bad CEO?

Posted 12 a.m., May 2, 2004

by Kevin Featherly

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Combing through Talking Points Memo this evening, I was directed to what I think may be the most insightful post I've seen anywhere pertaining to the morass in Iraq, or "Mess O'Potamia" as the "Daily Show" likes to call it.

In a blog post on The Washington Monthly, Kevin Drum explains what he thinks is the dynamic in the White House. It comes down to this, President Bush-the self-styled "CEO president"--is in fact the quintessential weak, mediocre CEO.

"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."

-- Kevin Drum

I don't know the president, and unlike Talking Points Memo's Joshua Micah Marshall, I haven't been in touch lately with any intelligence agency operatives or military experts. (I spend my days as a working reporter talking to experts in the healthcare information technology field industry.)

But even without that access, I am convinced this war is going just about as badly as it possibly could, short of going nuclear. Those published images of the apparent torture of Iraqi soldiers, just the latest example, is not just a sickening letdown by our military, but also potentially a public relations disaster of the highest order. Many Arabs think they see not just a few rogue American soldiers in those pictures, but a picture of America.

This "bad CEO' theory is the first theory I've encountered that begins to make sense of our president's approach to the war, his insistence on hoeing a line that obviously is not working, his failure to shut down people who should be out of the public picture. (Can you say George Tenant?) His insistence on painting a happy face on a very sad picture.

All the indications are that this is a president who genuinely believes in what he wants to do and he is genuinely committed to carrying out his plan--whatever that really is. There are some who might say Bush's path is paved by his Christian faith, a topic I commented on a fews days ago. But that doesn't quite do it for me. But this idea has resonance.

Sure, maybe it's just a clever thing Drum has found to say, and maybe it's way off the mark, totally wrong. Maybe it's naive for me to listen. But this whole picture finally feels like it's beginning to make sense. Drum may finally have solved the riddle.

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