McManus: Obama's a Lousy Manager

The Los Angeles Times' Doyle McManus, a frequent panelist on the PBS News Washington Week program, has stepped outside the liberal cocoon long enough to write some home truths about President Obama. He begins with the Veterans' Affairs scandal:

It's an especially dangerous scandal for President Obama because it fits into an established narrative about his presidency: that he's a skilled politician and speechmaker but a lousy manager.

The president's conservative critics have accused him, often wildly, of every sin they can think of, from diabolical conspiracy (in the case of the IRS) to dereliction of duty (Benghazi). But the charge that's likely to stick is one that connects all those unrelated events to an underlying truth: Obama has never paid as much attention to the nitty-gritty of management as he has to making policy and campaigning for votes.

McManus describes a shortfall with which even sensible Democrats should agree. I buy most of what he says except the "skilled speechmaker" meme; without a teleprompter and script Obama is a disaster.