After reading an article on how Obama came to his decision about what to do to end the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, his leadership style started becoming more apparent to me. His organizational capacity seems to be very similar to that of Kennedy’s as described by Greenstein in his book. There seem to be other similarities between the two, as both seem to be almost celebrity-like figures. As Greenstein says, Kennedy used his public performances and attractive ambiance to garner and maintain high levels of public approval even through the lows in his presidency when Kennedy blundered on issues like the Bay of Pigs and the Berlin Wall. Unfortunately he wasn’t fully aware of some of the language he used in his speeches, which caused tension to build with the Soviet Union. Obama on the other hand, seems to be very conscious of exactly what he is saying. He does seem to like to bee in the spotlight with his frequent appearances on television, which seems an attempt to go to the people and to convince them to support him. It seems that he is trying to rally support for his vision instead of solely going to Congress and only making his case there. I think that Obama realizes he has a pleasing appearance and a charming smile and wants to use them to his advantage. On many of the issues that he is trying to tackle, Obama will need support from both sides of the aisle and I think that his only way to do that is to take is case to everyone and to use whatever ability and skill he has to persuade them to join him. Unfortunately for Obama, he doesn’t appear to be as loved as Kennedy was. Even through his mistakes, Kennedy was able to maintain support for himself and still to this day, Kennedy is seen as a wonderful and effective president when in reality he really wasn’t. Obama seems to be taking Kennedy’s tactic but is only having limited success with it. He used it to great success in his election campaign, but now that he is president, I think that his charm and luster is wearing off. And unfortunately for Obama’s plans, unless he is able to use his cooperation-building skills to greater effectiveness than his youthful ambiance, it seems unlikely that he will be able to be the effective president that many hope. Another quality that Obama shares with Kennedy is the way he likes to make decisions. According to the article on NY Times, Obama had his team debate the different options in front of him so that he could see the clearer picture and would be able to make a much more informed decision. According to Greenstein, Kennedy liked to stimulate closely joined debate, as it appears Obama is doing. I think that it is an effective and more accurate way of making decisions because it lays out all of the options and allows the president to hear the pros and cons of each option. This way, the president doesn’t stick to a close-minded single track and blunder into situations and create more problems. One way I think that Obama strongly differs from Kennedy is his vision. Even in his pre election campaign, Obama outlined his large and encompassing vision of hat he would do if he were elected. Kennedy didn’t have such a vision. In fact, according to Greenstein, he had little in the way of an overarching perspective. So, I think in this way, Obama will be a more effective president. He may not have the irresistible charm that Kennedy did, but he does have a vision to guide him. I also think that it will give the people a clear picture of where Obama plans to go which may in turn help him because it gives the people a destination they can look forward to, instead of following him blindly into the dark.
