Obama's Leadership Skills

Barack Obama's presidential campaign is a sight to behold for many reasons, but among the least appreciated is its allergy to the disunity and spatting that generally convulses even the most successful of endeavors.
Obama, who never managed so much as a newsstand, has turned out to be a fairly remarkable leader of a what's becoming a billion dollar enterprise.
Here's a look at the principles responsible for his success:
1. A challenging, clearly-defined mission.
Win the Democratic nomination. Ok, that's obvious. But in November of 2006, Obama had a handful of wealthy Jewish donors from Chicago ready to raise money, a few Democratic strategy types who stood ready to put a campaign together, and not much of anything else. The challenge was immense, and the folks who joined the Obama campaign early on -- this was when Hillary Clinton was the frontrunner -- came aboard because they believed in Obama the challenge, not because they expected glory or material rewards. Salaries weren't competitive with the Clinton campaign's either. Obama attracted a large number of ideological Democrats who either had reason to dislike the Clintonian influence over the party or who believed that Obama stood at the crossroads between history and hope.
2. Clear lines of authority, with budget power appropriately vested in the campaign manager.
David Plouffe was named campaign manager and given the portfolio of essentially building an airplane as it was speeding down the runway. Plouffe's authority did not derive from his personal relationship with Barack Obama; indeed, Plouffe really didn't interact much with Obama before the campaign. Instead, it derived from the decisions he made that Obama later ratified. A corollary: Obama's best friend, Marty Nesbitt, was named campaign treasurer. That meant that Nesbitt, too, had oversight functions about spending and could make sure that Obama's personal values were reflected in the decisions made by the campaign.
David Axelrod would handle strategy, always a kind of messy and intrusive portfolio, but the strategy was pretty clear from the start: this is a change election, and Obama's the change agent.
Robert Gibbs would handle the press; and handle is a good word, because Obama's relationship with the press has been fascinating as it has evolved.
Their subordinates were generally given tasks and clear lines of authority.
3. The tone from the top.
Much has been written about Plouffe's preternatural unflappability, but his attitude helps confirm a basic principle of psychology: when the boss is freaked, employees get freaked. When the boss is calm, employees tend to remain calm.
But there's Obama's tone, too. Generally happy. "No drama." That's made clear to new employees, who feel the presence of the dictum as they go about their work. Drama disappoints Obama. No one wants to disappoint Obama. So -- if there are conflicts -- staffers are advised to work them out by themselves. A social cuing effect helps to cement the bond here; employees see that everyone else is getting along and feel pressure to get along, too.
4. Protecting Obama's public image at all costs
This one's also obvious, but it has been a priority from day one. The type of people drawn to the campaign are the type of people who would be angry at themselves if they somehow distorted the carefully crafted image that Obama and guru Gibbs et. al. had worked to create.
5. The personality cult
Not meant as an insult or a reference to messianic fervor; I mean more a reflection of Obama's personality. Obama is an occasionally fastidious perfectionist. He expects a high level of professional integrity from his staff; he expects a higher level of execution. When things go wrong, Obama doesn't just leave the aftermath to his subordinates, he actively helps to clean it up.
6. Decisions made quickly and decisively.
Occasionally, Obama temporizes. But just as often, he endorses quick, clear decision-making.
7. The freedom to do things differently.
Let the Clintons run their campaign the traditional way. Obama had nothing to lose and everything to gain, and so his campaign could experiment; they were trying to accomplish something that no challenger had every before accomplished, so they could afford to try new things, to throw out the old rulebooks, to ignore established habits of mind, and take some risks.

Jesse Jackson on Obama

Jesse Jackson may have just overstayed his welcome. But because of Jesse's heightened position in the media, what he said about cutting Obama's nuts off seemed almost insane. His comments are more than strange, especially in the context of the way American society has always feared and been allured by the black man's genitalia--from it being cut off before a lynching to lynch parties gathering because a white woman made a false accusation of rape against a black man and on to the more contemporary phenomenon of "Mandigo parties" (if you don't know what they are, look it up).

Jesse's statement was more than a little disturbing when you consider this country's past.
It makes you wonder what in the hell was Jesse thinking about? I'm sure there are greater thinkers who will tackle the psychology and motivation for Jesse's statement in a much better way than I ever could.But what Jesse Jackson said was so ridiculous and not only that, but he did something that I've been praying he and other civil rights leaders of old wouldn't do. He has put comments out there that'll give all the wrong people--to be blunt, those specific people who like to see this sort of conflict, especially between two prominent black people-- the ammunition they need to try to exploit the connection blacks have developed with Obama.

Nothing that Obama has been saying in his speeches in black churches or anywhere else about personal responsibility is wrong or elitist. He wasn't talking down to black people and what he's been saying applies to anyone, black or white. And what might surprise a lot of people is that most blacks agree with Obama. Jackson, in my mind, is struggling with the fact that Obama is where he is not. Now Jesse has to realize that its time that he fall back and support what his and other black civil rights good works have given rise to.

Sen. Hillary Clinton's Decision to stay in Primary Race

Throughout the course of the contest between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton for the title of Democratic nominee, a lot is being made on how it will effect the nominee in the Fall. The mudslinging, the name-calling, the shots at experience and policy- for the most part, it appeared that the punches thrown could do nothing but hobble the eventual nominee.

However, I believe her decision to stay in the race will only make Sen. Obama stronger. By the time he is chosen as the Democratic nominee he will be ready for Sen. John McCain. This tough contest with Clinton has sharpen Obama's policy ideas and speeches therefore making him a better candidate.