Presidential Management Style of Obama President - Essay Example

& Number: The American Presidency (A Place of Great Paradox) – 12 December (estimated word count = 640) Introduction The position of American president is considered to be the most powerful kind of position in the most powerful country of the world today. In this regard, people often wonder why there is so much gridlock in American politics; people cannot understand why awesome powers of the presidency cannot solve the countrys problems. A number of problems such as the financial crisis and the budge deficit reduction process cannot be speed up when there are a number of obstacles in the way the American government functions.

The way the government bureaucracy operates is not as simple as it seems. There are safeguards put in place by the founding fathers to prevent power from being concentrated in just one man, precisely to forestall the tyranny they had suffered from its colonial master of Great Britain and its king. The government is composed of its three co-equal and independent branches which are the presidency, the legislature or Congress (Senate and the lower House) and also its judiciary. These three branches serve as check and balance on each other so that no one in government accumulates so much power that can give rise to dictators and despots.

Discussion With presidential elections scheduled next year and Pres. Barack Obama up for a re-election, political discourse is rightfully focused on the awesome powers of the presidency. However, the checks and balances that the three co-equal branches of the federal government mandates the U.S. president to operate within the bounds of law referred to as the “separation of powers concept” in governance (Hargrove 8). This set-up stifles what the president can do and cannot do; this may be the cause of some disappointment expressed by U.S. citizens.

Constraints – it is not very correct to think that the American president today is a weak president. Pres. Obama has to contend with the powers of Congress to more effectively govern because the Democrats lost a lot during the last mid-term elections in November 2010. Public discontent had translated into the loss of six Senate seats, more than sixty House seats and ten governorships which strengthened the hand of the Republican Party. The president is no longer in command of both houses of the Congress which means it is now more difficult to pass new legislation, such as resolving the debt ceiling limits and federal budget deficits.

The recommended cuts are still being debated until now with no results (Newton-Small 1) but the president can cite some solid achievements, namely passing the stimulus act which prevented another Great Depression, new universal health care laws (with no limits and pre-conditions), financial reforms (especially on Wall Street and the banking industry), the killing of Osama bin Laden last May and repel of the DADT policy of the U.S. military services (Martin 1). In a new tack pursued by the president, he is sounding out the need for a revitalized U.S. middle class where everybody benefits from economic growth and prosperity (The Telegraph 1).

Conclusion Presidential management style – Pres. Obama does not want to appear too pushy at times, probably because he is conscious of being the first elected black American president. He does not want to alienate white voters and this laid back style is partly due to his being a former law professor. However, he had been criticized in the past as indecisive at times, such as during the April 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico for not taking any drastic actions. He should now take a more forceful personality in terms of tackling the economy, which is the one issue most Americans are concerned with today.

This pertains to reducing the 9.5% unemployment rate and become a transformative and inspiring president in the likes of Theodore Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy by using executive prerogative powers (Pious 33). Works Cited Hargrove, Julia. Judicial Branch of the Government. Dayton, OH, USA: Lorenz Educational Press, 2000. Print. Martin, Andrew. “In CBS Interview, Obama Makes Case for Second Term.” The New York Times. 12 Dec. 2011. Web. 12 Dec. 2011 Newton-Small, Jay. “The Four Pieces of the Great Spending Debate.

” Time Magazine. 14 Feb. 2011. Web. 12 Dec. 2011 Pious, Richard M. The Presidency. Boston, MA, USA: Allyn and Bacon, 1996. Print. The Telegraph. “Barack Obama Channels Theodore Roosevelt as he addresses Americas Gaping Inequality.” 07 Dec. 2011. Web. 12 Dec. 2011