Many like Barack Obama because they think him to be athletic and that he likes sports. So, let’s use a little sports analogy. We have seen time again the doldrums of losing when it comes to sports. We often ask ourselves how a team can just continue losing, even when they have a host of good players?
I recall at a very early age being taught that along with learning the sport you are playing and striving to be the best you can be, also comes learning how to win. Yeah, I know! In our society today, the losers see winning as an evil thing. I see it as another piece of the pie that made America great. Let’s get back to winning.
Here’s the scenario that we often see in expansion teams, like in baseball. A group of players are pulled from several teams, along with some rookies and an expansion ball club is formed. They have no history, the have very few fans and the task of building a successful franchise is difficult. Many factors play a role in how quickly or if at all a franchise will achieve success.
The longer the struggle drags to become winners, the task of winning becomes even more difficult. Losing becomes commonplace and readily acceptable. People want to blame the ownership, others the manager and still others pick on players individually or as a group. Over time what support there was dwindles. Losing begets losing. Attitudes stink and before long the fans begin believing that no matter what a team does, who the manager is or the players are, having success will never happen.
Obama was elected to head up his own expansion team. He campaigned for change, to do things differently than other team managers who had come before him. The fans supported him because they had become disenfranchised with previous managers expecting World Serious victories every year.
But ever since Obama took over the job, the team has only losses to account for. Some fans said, “Give him a chance!” others decided they would support him through wins and losses as any good fan would do. But as the losing continues, the support vanishes. Eventually the fan base gets seriously eroded. They begin thinking that the manager just doesn’t know how to run a baseball club. Every move he makes is questioned and the losing continues.
Eventually there are no more relief pitchers in bull pen. The starting pitchers are washed up and every new player brought in to help build the club does not have the support of the fans. When this happens, it’s time to clean house. The manager must go and an entire new team brought in and built from the ground up.
The Obama team has no experience or knowledge of winning. The team that has been built is faltering. We see key players wanting to be traded. Each successive move to resolve a team problem merely creates a set of new ones. Ten-game losing streaks turn into 15. The team becomes the laughing stock of every sports fan in the world.
Time to clean house and begin rebuilding.
Tom Remington
