February 19th / 21st, 2010
"Obama Should Listen to Wilder"
Last week, former Virginia Governor Doug Wilder said that the Obama
administration needed an overhaul. In an editorial for Politico.com, Wilder, the
nation's first elected African American Governor, espoused a litany of
Obama shortcomings, and suggested ways to correct them.
Chief among Wilder's complaints is that the White House staff is made up
of too many people left over from the campaign, and from Obama's collection
of old Chicago cronies. Writes the Governor, "Getting elected and getting
things done for the people are two different jobs". In addition to
inexperience in governing, Wilder observed, "The deeper problem is that they are
not listening to people. Hearing is one thing, listening is another".
Wilder also laid blame for recent Democratic losses in Virginia, New
Jersey, and Massachusetts at the door of his fellow Virginian, DNC chairman Tim
Kaine, who also once served as Governor of the Old Dominion. "Shake-ups at
the White House and at the top of the party are necessary if the President
is to succeed", wrote Wilder.
If anyone is qualified to tell Mr.Obama how to govern, it is Doug Wilder,
and not just because they share a common skin color. Wilder is a self made
man who rose from being a shoe shine boy, to being a waiter at an all-white
country club, to winning a bronze star for bravery in Korea, to becoming a
Governor in the cradle of the Confederacy. Wilder was also one of the
most accomplished State executives in the country, having been recognized for
budget balancing in the wake of a major recession, and having passed the
nation's first handgun legislation which successfully curbed the "guns for
drugs" trade along the I-95 corridor between Richmond and New York City.
Wilder accomplished these and many other initiatives because he had a
vision, and the people around him shared in that vision. I was privileged to
work with him on a number of projects, and I was always in awe of his talent
and conviction. And, unlike Obama, Wilder didn't surround himself with
party hacks, nor did he need a pit bull Chief of Staff like Rahm Emanuel to do
his bidding. Instead, his gatekeeper, Glenn Davidson, was a mild mannered
man who helped the Governor forge non traditional political alliances, both
inside and outside of the State. For example, Wilder served as Chairman of
the Southern Governor's Association where he expanded economic ties with
Central America, opened trade with West Africa, helped to lower the rate of
infant mortality in the South, and established a system of shared resources
during times of natural disasters.
In comparison, Mr. Obama has: squandered a super majority in the Senate;
let big Pharma and insurance companies obstruct substantive healthcare
reform; escalated a war he pledged to get us out of; presided over bail-outs
that produced big bonuses for corrupt bankers; implemented a stimulus plan
that has done nothing to abate unemployment; and failed to repeal or
reform trade agreements that have sucked jobs out of America, and spit them out
into third world countries.
Doug Wilder once made a brief run for President in the 1992, but America
was enamored with Bill Clinton, and not yet ready to elect a Black man to a
very White House. That's too bad because Governor Wilder would have made a
good President. Nevertheless, he is now offering our current President
some valuable advice, and Mr. Obama would do well to take heed. Barack Obama
ran a campaign that promised change, but thus far, he has failed to deliver
on that promise. It's time for our President to grow a pair, show some
leadership, and to translate his oratory into action. In other words, it's
time for Barack Obama to morph into Doug Wilder. Now that's change we could
really believe in.
|
