Issues Under Fire Strategic Thinkers Needed at the White House

We're beginning to hearing whispers. These nearly imperceptible murmurs are now constant and consistent. These whispers need amplification. Hey, it's what we do!

We're beginning to have serious doubts that the Obama administration has the best strategic thinkers on the job. As of late, the White House seems woefully out of touch, off the mark and out of sync with current global trends. The G-8 Summit in Ireland was a disaster, the President's Germany speech was a disaster and the administration's handling the NSA/CIA global spying crisis has been an absolute disaster.

If one reviewed the President and his team's foreign policy performance throughout the Syrian crisis, one would be distressed over the disastrous way its been managed to date. Allowing himself to be trapped and or coerced into engaging Syria militarily while his Russian/Chinese counterparts push a narrative of peaceful negotiations looks like another disaster in the making. Used like a rented mule by the Israelis, the administration has been out maneuvered every step of the way in Syria.

For such a smart guy, we're a bit perplexed as to how so many blunders and missteps are being made on the world's stage. Its been a consistent stream of misjudgments and miscalculations, that have led this White House down one blind alley after another.

To be fair, we're not holding the President solely accountable for poor policy management and execution. We are holding the President accountable for poor policy development, inconsistent execution and the questionable team he's personally selected to handle said task. If great minds think alike, perhaps President Obama needs to find some like minds.

Perhaps expectations were erroneously heightened due to the President's superior campaigning and oratory skills. Perhaps the stark intellectual contrast to his predecessor gave President Obama an aura of brilliance beyond reality. Perhaps a lot of stuff. Who the hell knows?

We do know this: Running a campaign is one thing, running the most heavily armed and heavily indebted  nation on the planet is a far more complicated endeavor. Campaigning for the U.S. Presidency is a relatively easy task for any reasonably intelligent individual with billions at his/her disposal and your competitor is a complete asshole. Couple that with a modestly educated, poorly informed and somewhat apathetic and disillusioned electorate and your road to the White House is virtually assured.

However, once the confetti has fallen and the balloons have deflated and its time to engage some of the smartest strategic planners on the planet, one has to have a crew in place to meet and defend against top tier adversaries on continuously shifting platforms. Unfortunately, we just don't see President Obama and the current crew of presidential advisors getting the job done.

Bottom line: Whispers reveal faith in Obama's team of strategic thinkers is on the wane. The U.S. is losing the global messaging war and losing badly.