Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site uscvax.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!whuxlm!harpo!decvax!ucbvax!ucdavis!lll-crg!dual!qantel!hplabs!sdcrdcf!uscvax!kurtzman
From: kurtzman@uscvax.UUCP (Stephen Kurtzman)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: reagan's weekends
Message-ID: <1057@uscvax.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 13-Sep-85 16:10:59 EDT
Article-I.D.: uscvax.1057
Posted: Fri Sep 13 16:10:59 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 18-Sep-85 05:33:41 EDT
References: <2926@ncsu.UUCP> <203@pyuxii.UUCP> <471@im4u.UUCP> <3682@amdcad.UUCP>
Organization: CS&CE Depts, U.S.C., Los Angeles, CA
Lines: 32

> > >> What difference does it make where any President spends his
> > >> weekends?  Or how many, for that matter.
> > 
> > In the case of Reagan, it may not make any difference at all where or how he
> > spends his weekends -- fact is, even when he's in Washington he's only a
> > part-time President.  He's the only President in modern U.S. history who
> > watches soap operas, takes long afternoon naps and has important decisions
> > presented to him by his staff as multiple-choice problems.
> > 
> 
> Is this different from many CEO's?  Most of them spend a lot of time
> outside the sompany, doing PR and going to high-society events, and
> the vice presidents and senior executives run the company on the inside.
> Reagan does the PR (and he does it effectively).  How many of you
> work for companies in which the CEO does the analysis for policy
> decisions?

Yes it is different. I think you will find that CEOs spend a great
deal of their time on company business. The work may look different (eg
more glamorous, less tedious) but I think you will find most CEOs are on
top of the major issues in their company's. You will also find the CEOs
reading the analyses prepared for them. The CEO can trust an underling to
make a decision, but the CEO is responsible for its adoption. Reagan, on
the other hand, does not take responsibility for his actions. The closest
he has come to it is to say something of the sort "one of my aids did it
so I take responsibility". What that amounts to is a nice way to pay lip
service to the Truman notion of "the buck stops here" while passing the
buck along.

The analogy of Reagan's presidency to the position of a CEO of a major
corporation is weak. Reagan acts more as a figurehead, not unlike the
queen of England or Ronald McDonald.


Brought to you by Super Global Mega Corp .com