Team of 10s

Daniel Henninger is no friend of Barack Obama, suggesting, correctly I think, that Obama has been responsible for "the most catastrophic American presidency in over 80 years. And it ain’t over yet."

He suggests that the Democrat nominee is a fait accompli. The GOP field is considerably more interesting with a mix of Governors, Senators, a doctor, a TV personality/preacher, and a business executive in the running. That level of diversity is sorely missing among the Dems—the party of, ahem, diversity.

But Henninger warns that even if the GOP prevails against an onslaught of "middle class economics," "income inequality," and the "war on women," putting this nation back on course and correcting the damage that has been done will not be easy. He writes:

Instead of offering an anxious electorate a recognizable alternative to this status quo, the Republicans look like they’re obsessed with discovering Captain America.

Their Captain America could be named Rand, Scott, Jeb or Marco, but the mere landing of this political superhero in the Oval Office will turn the country around. Really? That’s all it is going to take?

The sad reality is that a president can do great damage, but correcting the damage takes time, political will, leadership and a very competent team of professionals that have been sorely lacking in recent years.

Henninger writes:

The task that Barack Obama is dumping on the next U.S. president, of either party, is overwhelming.

Here’s the job description: Needed, a U.S. president able to confront a world in chaos, rebuild shattered alliances, revive the country’s demoralized intelligence services and senior officer corps, manage foreign and domestic demands with a budget that will be drained for years by fantastically expensive debt servicing, and along the way restore public faith in an array of deeply politicized federal bureaucracies—Justice, HHS, EPA, Labor, Internal Revenue, the NLRB, FCC, EEOC, even the Federal Reserve.

The U.S. just tried electing a rookie president and had six years of amateur hour. It doesn’t work. And it won’t work again if the next president, whether rookie or former governor, shows up in the Oval Office in January 2017 with not much more than his victory cape and some political pals.

Given the scale of the challenge, the next U.S. president isn’t going to have a six-month honeymoon to figure out the policy details of what he wants to do. Whoever occupies the White House after the Obama Terminator presidency stops will have to hit the ground running from day one. Competent Cabinet secretaries and their deputies aren’t something you can grab off the shelf. The next president, before the Inauguration, will have to be someone who can attract about 100 of the most skilled and yes, experienced, people available into government.

I have written many times about Barack Obama's Team of 2s. Through their incompetence, partisan ideology, and dishonesty, they have created a severe challenge for the next president—a challenge that can only be addressed with a Team of 10s. The GOP should remember that as they pick their nominee for 2016.