Fading hope

A report by CNN today summarizes the opinions of various pundits scoring the Obama presidency. I first evaluated President Obama in 2008 while writing Smart Data, Enterprise Performance Optimization Strategy (c) 2101 Wiley Publishing. In the book, I sought to provide advice about how he needed to improve his management approach. 

My critique began by applying an effective management technique that has been widely accepted by the US Department of Defense. The approach starts with identifying essential outcomes for which appropriate performance metrics are applied.

The first layer of errors happened when the President and his Administration failed to prioritize outcomes accurately and to precisely define performance metrics.

The second layer of errors is from his failing to calibrate precise expectations with citizens and with Congress.

The third layer of errors is from his failing to appoint highly-qualified people to Department-level positions from a cadre of experienced candidates. His appointments were from his green team of supporters and lacked experience and wisdom, as well as professional knowledge in many, but not all cases. He maintained relationships with former Bush cabinet members, and that was a plus. In the instance of his HHS appointment, that was a bust.

Since the former President Obama has zero CEO experience either in the public or private sector, he was engaging in on-the-job training that the nation can ill-afford. He managed with brute force intellect, and that was perceived as arrogance. Such characteristic was exploited by Republicans and used in bigoted and inappropriate ways to undermine the Obama presidency.

The CNN gave him an average "C" for his performance using random criteria from pundits. This independent journalist and analyst would give him a near failing grade based on deficient outcomes. His highest performance was rescuing the economy from disaster. After that, performance is mixed and lacking when it comes to the most importance outcomes. You will have to read my old and new books for more details.

"Obama's final report card: Did he live up to his promise?
Updated 1:04 AM ET, Thu January 19, 2017." 

http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/09/opinions/obama-legacy-opinion-roundup/index.html

Average or below

How to Select an American President: Evidence in the weeds

How to Select an American President: Evidence in the weeds: The trouble right now is that the FBI and Intel Agency must confront their duty in a conflicted environment. Their organization's missio...

Evidence in the weeds

The trouble right now is that the FBI and Intel Agency must confront their duty in a conflicted environment. Their organization's missions are legislated. Their duty is to pursue them independently and professionally without political intervention.

President-elect Trump's lies are well documented. However, they are not purposely collected and analyzed. The process is random, at best.

"President-elect Donald Trump told a radio interviewer in October 2015 that he had met Vladimir Putin “one time … a long time ago” and that he “got along with him great” — a statement that conflicts with his later denials during the campaign that he had ever met or spoken with the Russian president. 

The newly surfaced audiotape, uncovered by a political opposition-research group, could fuel new questions about the precise nature of Trump’s past relations with the Russian president — a subject about which he has made multiple contradictory comments. It was released just hours after Putin, speaking from Moscow, denounced officials in the Obama administration as “worse than prostitutes” for circulating “nonsense” personal allegations about Trump that were allegedly collected by Russian intelligence." 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/tape-shows-trump-contradicting-himself-again-on-putin-meeting-213245455.html

The mission of the FBI is to protect the American people and uphold the United States Constitution. If a US presidential candidate's relationships are suspected to be conflicted in any manner, the FBI must investigate.

The intelligence agency is different.

"The employees of the CIA provide intelligence (or information) to the President, the National Security Council, and all other government officials who make and carry out US national security policy. 

We do not make policy or even make policy recommendations. That’s the job of the US executive branch, such as the State Department or the Defense Department. We provide these leaders with the best information possible to help them make policy involving other countries."

CIA 

The onus is on the FBI to vet and to investigate Donald Trump.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other Democrats are insisting that the FBI investigate alleged links between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin to find out whether Russia has leverage over the incoming president. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Trump waves magic wand: 'insurance for everybody'

The American political system that is the US Constitutional brand of government is all about the process. For instance, the required outcome is affordable healthcare for all citizens. That includes globally competitive performance metrics reflected in quality and cost measurements. The place to begin the discussion is understanding the as-is and to-be situation and scenarios.

What is the as-is performance of the healthcare system today that includes the Affordable Care Act, Medicare, and Medicaid: number of citizens covered, healthcare quality, and associated costs?

What is the to-be performance of the healthcare system as envisioned and proposed by President-elect Trump, addressing the same measurements?

Do Americans truly know and understand the starting position? The US Congress is working hard to hide the facts. They don't want the Congressional Budget Office telegraphing the situation. That is an impeachable offense for all involved. That is not transparency.

Just as the Democratic-controlled Congress under Nancy Pelosi found the task of producing legislation to address the needs challenging, the Republican congressional members have had years to produce an alternative. They have failed and that is a fact. They failed for not trying. They failed Donald Trump for not having alternative legislation ready for his review.

Now, it is impossible that Donald Trump who is not a lawyer, and his newly appointed and yet-to-be-confirmed HHS Director have somehow engineered new legislation that will suddenly appear and will have been vetted by the process.

Donald Trump is yet to be fully vetted. It is highly unlikely that his solution will be miraculous, unless, of course, it is plagiarized and modified from the Affordable Care Act. Let's compare when there are contents to analyze.

"Trump insists health care replacement will have 'insurance for everybody.'
Published January 16, 2017  FoxNews.com 

What does health insurance 'for everybody' really mean?
President-elect Donald Trump revealed in an interview with The Washington Post that he’s almost finished with a plan to replace ObamaCare and vowed to have “insurance for everybody.” 

Trump declined to reveal the pertinent details of the new health care plan, but told The Post in the interview published Sunday night that drug companies will be forced to negotiate on Medicare and Medicaid prices. He also plans to fight pharmaceutical companies over drug prices. 

The president-elect insisted that his plan for replacing the Affordable Healthcare Act is all but finished, and added that care would have “lower numbers, much lower deductibles.” He went as far to say that he’s ready to reveal it alongside Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan. 

“It’s very much formulated down to the final strokes. We haven’t put it in quite yet, but we’re going to be doing it soon,” Trump said during the interview with the paper.
He added that he’s still waiting for Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., to be confirmed as his secretary for health and human services. A hearing for his confirmation has yet to be scheduled. 

PAUL PREVIEWS OBAMACARE REPLACEMENT PLAN FOCUSING ON LOWER COST POLICIES 

Congressional Republicans took the first big step last week in their seven-year trek to dismantle President Obama’s health care law, passing a budget that would ease the passage of a bill that would replace ObamaCare. The budget — the Senate approved it Thursday — bars Democratic senators from blocking that future legislation with a filibuster. 

The budget "gives us the tools we need for a step-by-step approach to fix these problems and put Americans back in control of their health care," Ryan, R-Wis., said after the vote." 

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/01/16/trump-reportedly-insists-healthcare-replacement-will-have-insurance-for-everybody.html

I am working on a healthcare tweet

How to Select an American President: Is Trump a 'legitimate' president?

How to Select an American President: Is Trump a 'legitimate' president?: On this Martin Luther King Day, US Representative John Lewis dominates the headline with the charge that President-elect Donald Trump's...

Is Trump a 'legitimate' president?

On this Martin Luther King Day, US Representative John Lewis dominates the headline with the charge that President-elect Donald Trump's election is illegitimate. What that means is that the process of electing Trump and the candidate's actions failed to conform to the laws and rules governing it.

Russian hackers and leakers purposefully attacked the Democratic Party candidate. The FBI and the US Intelligence Agency confirmed that as being true.

President-elect Trump has gone on the record many times to deny that Russians interfered. He challenged and criticized the US intelligence professionals while going out of his way to compliment Russian President Putin. That is circumstantial behavior that may smell like smoke. There is no fire until more facts are evident and proven.

Begin with Donald Trump's declarations that he has had no business dealings with the Russians. His IRS and business filings should support or negate his claims.  Is the question are the FBI and authorities investigating for the purpose of vetting his declaration of no conflicts of interest?

Such vetting should have been done by the sponsoring political party well in advance of Trump's having become a candidate. As the process continued, a viable candidate would have voluntarily opened his records for an investigation. Trump has consistently resisted that.

Therefore, Congressman Lewis' charge of illegitimacy might be correct based on the candidate's failure to come clean with evidence and assurance of no conflicts.

What else makes Trump illegitimate? He won the electoral college votes. While he lost the popular vote, he won by playing by the rules that he has declared is rigged.

Trump has proceeded to attempt to staff positions with his family members that is nepotism.

"The recruitment of current employees’ relatives tends to perpetuate the racial, religious and ethnic characteristics of the existing workforce.  Therefore, nepotistic recruiting may be discriminatory where the current workforce is predominantly or exclusively of one race, religion or ethnic group." 

https://hrsimple.com/blog/nepotism

Such actions are after-the-fact and surely don't strengthen the president-elect's compliance with best practices and the law.

Donald Trump's relationship with his businesses is still under evaluation with much concern expressed by ethics officials.

The situation is that Trump may be illegitimate by not being complete in distancing himself from apparent conflicts.

The answer is that until or unless Trump is complete in providing evidence of the lack of conflicts, he might be classified as being illegitimate. 

Staticvibe.com

How to Select an American President: Obama sets the Trump agenda

How to Select an American President: Obama sets the Trump agenda: Like it or not, former President Barack Obama has set the legislative agenda for Donald Trump and the Republican Congress. The nation needs ...