Why Mr. Spock Would Only Give Obama One Term

I am not a big Star Trek fan but my family is so I have had to sit through all of the Star Trek movies and television shows in one form or another. However, a scene from the Star Trek movie, "Wrath Of Khan," has actually stuck with me since I first saw it.

In the climatic scene, the villian Khan and his bad guys are trying to shoot down the Enterprise when both ships enter some kind of dense, gigantic electrically charged cloud. This cloud reduces visual and instrumental tracking, making it difficult for the bad guys' ship to finish off the Enterprise.

After some tense maneuvering and dodging within the cloud, first officer Mr. Spock presents the following observation relative to Khan's actions: "He's intelligent but not experienced. His pattern indicates two dimensional thinking." In other words, Khan is searching for the Enterprise going left and right, ignoring the up and down dimension of space. Thus, Captain Kirk stops dodging left and right and drops the Enterprise down 10,000 units. Khan, the two dimensional thinker, goes directly over the Enterprise, Kirk lifts the Enterprise up 10,000 units and can now attack Khan's ship from behind. Victory!

Now consider some quotes from Barack Obama:

1. August 10, 2009 in the New York Times: "I've got a lot on my plate and it's very important for us to sequence these big initiatives in a way they don't just all crash at the same time." Which raises the obvious question: Is it better to have them crash sequentially?
2. Over the past few weeks, the President, his press secretary, and White House press releases have explained that the President will now "pivot" to the jobs issue. Which raises the obvious question: has he been ignoring the jobs issue to date?

In fact, the President appears to be only a one dimensional thinker, according to his own words. The President is a straight ahead, sequential thinker, focusing on only one issue at a time. In 2009, he was focused only health care legislation, postponing or "sequencing" other major issues after the one, single issue he was working at the time was done.

Unemployment has been stuck at around 14 million Americans and 9.0% for what seems forever, and this does not include the underemployment issue which probably includes another 9 million Americans who have given up looking for a job or are underemployed. It is only now that the President will "pivot" from wherever his attention has been to working on jobs?  At least Khan was a two dimensional thinking, looking left and right. Obama only looks straight ahead, only one problem at a time.

Yes, the President might be intelligent. However, his first three years in office and his pre-Presidential years show that he has had minimal experience in solving problems, he has minimal experience in multitasking, he has minimal experience in strategic thinking. The country faces some very serious issues. It cannot afford to wait until a one dimensional thinker and leader gets around to putting something else on his plate.

Consider what has happened since 2009 when the President declared he needed to sequence our national problems and issues:

• Unemployment and underemployment have gotten worse.
• Our national debt is on target to rise four TRILLION dollars during the President's term, incurring about $35,000 of debt for each household in the country.
• North Korea and Iran are two years closer to being nuclear weapons powers.
• We still have no national energy strategy and program.
• Most of our public schools are still under educating our kids.
• Health care costs are still rising more than twice the rate of inflation despite Obama Care.
• Our borders still leak and we still do not have a comprehensive and compassionate illegal alien plan.
• Our war on drugs is still being lost and resulting in a violent and lawless narco state evolving just south of our borders.
• We appear to still not have a coherent and effective strategy in dealing with the war in Afghanistan.

How long will it take the President to "pivot" to these problems? We cannot afford to wait for a one dimensional thinker to get around to these issues, these problems are affecting all of America everyday.

When Kirk took Spock's advice and dropped the Enterprise down below Khan's ship, he was strategically solving a problem by understanding the root causes of his dilemma, i.e. Khan is the problem but he was only a two dimensional thinker. Consider how this President does not think strategically like Kirk:

• His health care solution did not address the root causes of high health care costs in this country, e.g. Americans eat too much of the wrong kind of food, Americans do not exercise enough, Americans smoke too much, America's average age is increasing, etc. A strategic thinker would address these root causes. Obama did not, all he did was create a giant government bureaucracy that increases our taxes and does not eliminate the root causes of high health care costs because he could not think outside of the single dimenson of government bureaucracy.
• His energy policies are not much different: simpleton tactics with no overarching strategy. He wants cars to get better mileage, he wants trucks to get better mileage, he wants the EPA to shut down existing power plants that are polluting, etc. But there is no overall plan, just straightforward, one dimensional, short term thinking with no overall strategy.
• His drug policies are no better than any of his predecessors in the White House. By not thinking strategically, we are worse off than when he came into office if you look at the drug cartel violence wrecking Mexico.
• Failing public schools - I do not know what he is dong differently than any other politician who came before him and their approaches were no better than Khan's two dimensional thinking.

You get the idea. This President has two major problem solving flaws: all of his policies have been disconnected, short term, tactical actions that will not change or address the underlying root causes of our problems. Second, by his own admission, he cannot multi-task, he has to address each problem sequentially and when he does, the first flaw comes into play, non-strategic thinking.

Now it could be that the President spends so much time hosting every conceivable sports championship team at White House photo ops that he does not have enough time to multi-task. It could be that the President spends so much time political campaigning that he does not have enough time to multi-task. It could be that the President spends so much time traveling internationally that he does not have enough time to multi-task.

Or it could just be the simple fact that this President has never had to multi-task or think strategically. His background and White House tenure so far shows he can do neither. Thus, Mr. Spock would probably not support him for a second term since while the President might be intelligent, he's not experienced in the skills we need from a leader and a problem solver. If he cannot think beyond one dimension today, if he can only handle one issue at a time on his plate, we cannot wait until he might develop any multi-dimensional skills. 

The problems listed above are moving too fast and in negative directions to have someone like Khan at the helm. We need a multi-dimensional thinker that can multi-task. Too bad Spock and Kirk are no longer around.



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