What Obama Shouldn't Do

Obama will have to set aside some campaign promises. Drucker said as priorities shift, great Presidents must respond accordingly

By Rick Wartzman

President-Elect Barack Obama has made plenty of promises about what he's going to do: provide tax relief to the middle class, rebuild our crumbling infrastructure, invest in renewable energy, ensure that all children receive a first-rate education, and make health care accessible and affordable for every American—all while taming the nation's monstrous deficit.

But as Peter Drucker made clear, Obama's success may well hinge on what he chooses not to do.

It is absolutely crucial, Drucker wrote in a 1993 piece in which he dispensed a little management advice for the Oval Office, that any new President "not stubbornly do what he wants to do, even if it was the focus of his campaign."

He noted that Harry Truman came into the Presidency convinced, "as were most Americans," that he should begin tackling a string of domestic problems, what with the end of World War II at hand. "What made him an effective President," said Drucker, "was his accepting within a few weeks that international affairs, especially the containment of Stalin's worldwide aggression, had to be given priority whether he liked it or not (and he didn't).

"There seems to be a law of American politics," Drucker continued, "that the world always changes between Election Day and Inauguration Day. To refuse to accept this—as Jimmy Carter tried to do—is not to be 'principled.' It is to deny reality and condemn oneself to being ineffectual."

Of course, in Obama's case, the upending of the world has already happened. Strengthening the economy, and especially bringing some relief to battered homeowners, has to be his No. 1 aim. Should Obama splinter his efforts and concentrate on much more at the outset than fixing the financial system, he is likely, as Drucker put it, to "achieve nothing."

No "Sure Thing"

Another what-not-to-do rule for the President-elect: "Don't ever bet on a sure thing," Drucker wrote. "It always misfires." Drucker recalled that no President has enjoyed more of a popular mandate than did Franklin Roosevelt heading into his second term. Indeed, he had "every reason to believe that his plan to 'pack' the Supreme Court and thereby remove the last obstacle to…New Deal reforms" would be a slam dunk. His move, however, immediately backfired—"so much so," Drucker pointed out, "that he never regained control of Congress."

Obama's gracious victory speech, in which he reached across the aisle and expressed "a measure of humility and determination to heal the divides that have held back our progress," was a good and important first step. As he moves along in the months ahead, he must continue to take that same tack in both words and deeds.

What else shouldn't Obama do? "An effective President," Drucker wrote, "has to say 'no' to the temptation to micromanage." The most promising paradigm, he suggested, might be FDR's cabinet, where "nine of 10 members (all but the Secretary of State) were what we would now call technocrats—competent specialists in one area." "I make the decision," Drucker quoted Roosevelt as saying, "and then turn the job over to a cabinet member and leave him or her alone."

By contrast, Drucker asserted, trying to have a single White House chief-of-staff spearhead an Administration's biggest programs "has never worked" very well. Neither, he said, does the Clintonesque model of bringing into the room "dozens and dozens of deputy secretaries, undersecretaries, assistant secretaries, special assistants, and so on." That merely turns the highest levels of government "into a perpetual mass meeting."

Of all the things for the President not to do, though, Drucker left little doubt: He must never assume that government can—or should even try— to solve every ill.