A losing coach gets fired

As a former head women’s tennis coach at Georgetown University, I know
what it’s like to inherit a weak team. It’s great — nowhere to go but
up! Pressure is off … at least for the first season.

Team Obama
is closing in on the end of the first term, fourth season, and the U.S.
economy is still weak. GDP only just recovered to its pre-recession
peak, and unemployment is still over 8 percent. Our national debt keeps
growing. And the administration is not showing the kind of leadership
Congress needs to stop kicking the fiscal can further down the road.
 
This month, Team Romney asked, “Are you better off now than you were four years ago?” Many Americans couldn’t say yes. They’re worried about stagnant wages, a tough job market, rising college tuition and underfunded pension plans. The administration fired back by claiming the question is unfair — it doesn’t account for how bad the recession was and for how misguided the previous administration’s tax and spending policies were.
 
{mosads}But almost four years later, should the president still get a pass? Going back to the sports metaphor, if Obama is the head coach of the U.S. economy, he has a losing record. Any athletic department would give a head coach a couple years to rebuild, recruit and then another year to see how the team starts to work together, find its rhythm. After three and a half years — any respectable athletic director would give the coach the boot without a winning record.

At the beginning, just about anything can be blamed for a bad performance — the previous coach’s record, a shortage of funds, injuries … or even the weather.
 
But at some point, the buck has to stop at a coach’s door. She has to own her team’s problems and take responsibility for its performance. That’s what leadership is. And if she can’t deliver, fire her!
 
President Obama certainly inherited a weak economy — nowhere to go but up. But he can’t keep blaming continued weakness on past crises, inheriting poor monetary policy or policy mistakes.

As a big basketball player and fan, Obama certainly would be impatient if his favorite team had a losing record for three years. I wonder if he would fire the coach.