By Ron Munden — 3/16/2021
Yes! Unforced errors can cost you an election. Let me give you an example. President Trump totally bungled the CODID-19 response. He was not reelected to a second term. I strongly believe that Trump would be President today if he had not made this unforced error.
Unfortunately, President Biden appears to be following in Trump’s footsteps when it comes to unforced errors.In fact I fear Biden is outperforming Trump in this area.
In the interest of full disclosure, let me say I don’t like writing this article. I voted for Biden. I had high hopes for him. I want him to be reelected but because of his unforced errors I see the chances of that fading away just 50 days into his administration.
Today all the oxygen in Washington is being consumed by the immigration problems at the southern border. Biden finds himself with that problem because of an unforced error he made. He decided to take on the complex issue of immagration in his first 100 days. Unfortunately this mistake may insure he is a one term President and the Republicans did not have to lift a finger.
Years back when I worked for a living, one of my rules of engagement was — never take ownership of someone else’s problem until you have a well throughout plan for solving that problem.
At this point I am reminded of Colin Powel’s pottery barn rule — if you break it. You own it.
Some may say Biden had to take on immigration now. That is not the case. Sure the immigration policy for the US needs work but not now. Biden needed a well thought out solution before he broke the pot.
A flawed statuesque is always better as a solution than uncontrolled chaos.
Whoever advised Biden to make this a top priority might look for other work. Clearly this is not his strong suit. I don’t recommend shifting the blame. The person that the top should be the first to get the blame if they signed off of the approach.
So expanding of Powell’s pottery barn story:
Very early in his administration, Joe Biden picked up the immigration pot and hammer. Without much thought he used a hammer (sometimes called an executive order) to break the pot. Shocked by the smell of the liquid in the pot which was running over his hands, he lost his balance. While trying to regain his balance, he stepped into a mature pile that he had not noticed.
So now Joe finds himself with shit on his shoes, god knows what on his hands and a broken pot.
This is the story of an unforced error.
I wish I could suggest a solution. I can’t. I do know is that fixing the immigration problem has become a lot more difficult because Joe broke that pot.
Sadly, that at this point Joe does not smell very good.
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