It can come as no shock that there are a lot of folks in the Netroots that have a paramount issue that they think, talk and write about extensively. When they do they often are making a case to make this the number one priority of the new Obama administration. This almost invariably leads to someone commenting that while issue X is important our politicians should be able to focus on more than one thing at a time. The Dog thinks that is very, true, but it kind of ignores a couple of factors that should also be taken into consideration.
The first is that there can only ever be one number one priority. With the best will in the world, no one can truly give the highest level of focus to two things at the same time. Sure, you can switch back and forth and it may seem that you are giving equal time to two or more issues, but the reality is that things move at differing speeds, and the one that is making the most progress is likely to be where you subtly focus a little extra attention. There is nothing to find fault with, everyone likes success and it self reinforces with more attention providing more success.
The other factor is that, again with the best will in the world, there is a limited amount of focus that you can detail to your priorities. Some people have a higher or lower level of this resource, but every single one of us has an absolute maximum that you devote to all the things that you need to achieve. Knowing this, it is often a good strategy to try to lay ones top priorities and then assign a percentage of time that one is willing to commit to devoting to this area. This is done knowing that it is a strategic goal, but that circumstances may dictate a change. That is why it is a strategy, not a hard and fast set of rules, strategy must be flexible enough to deal with unexpected reality, or it is no good. However you are much more likely to be near the amount of time spent on your priorities if you take the time to detail it in advance instead of trying to do it on the fly.
This brings the Dog to the President Elect. He is in the unenviable position of inheriting a plethora of problems, all of which will require some of his attention and effort to address. The President is very lucky in that he has an enormous staff that can provide him with options, but they still require his direction and attention, as he is the one that sets policy, the staff merely carries out his directives (this is very different from the criminal Bush administration that seems to have gone any direction it liked without much real input from the criminal in chief himself). Now we can assume that President Elect Obama has made such a list of his priorities and the level of attention that each will receive (all things being nominal). It is not really up to us to make this decision for him, but the Dog believes that it is important for us to try to understand how this works in order to better predict where and when we should push for our policy agenda items.
So, the Dog is proposing a little game. How it works is as follows, the Dog will lay out ten major policy priorities. They will be what seem to be the crises and opportunities that the Untied States faces today. You will be able to assign up to 100% of your time to them in total. For example you could assign each 10% of your time and attention. Or your could assign only four 25% of your time.
Now, any priority that is assigned 2% or less is basically going to drift. You will not be able to control it much, but your position will be known. You will be at the whim of Congress for those priorities.
If you choose a balanced approach (where you have the same amount of priority for any two or more policy areas) you will be at risk of trying to focus in two places at once with the result being one will actually get a little less focus, so it is better to have a one or two percent difference in focus for everything.
Remember this is just how you would start the Obama presidency; it is always subject to change upon success in that area or crisis.
The Ten Policy areas are;
Economic Stimulus
Deficit Control
Health Care Reform
Iraq War
Afghanistan War
Automaker Collapse
Gaza War/Israel Palestinian Peace
Global Climate Change
Tax Cuts for the Middle Class
Torture Investigation/Restoration of Constitution/Restoration of Rule of Law.
Now it is up to you how you would allocate your time and attention, what will you do? Remember these are broad categories, in most cases, and there can be synergy between them, so do your best within the frame work.
Just to kick things off the Dog will give you his priorities:
Economic Stimulus 20%
Torture Investigation/Restoration of Constitution/Restoration of Rule of Law. 16%
Health Care Reform 14%
Tax Cuts for the Middle Class 11%
Afghanistan War 10%
Gaza War/Israel Palestinian Peace 9%
Global Climate Change 8%
Automaker Collapse 7%
Iraq War 5%
Deficit Control 0%
Now, of course there could be more items that are not listed here, but this is just an exercise to give you a feel for what the President has to do in terms being able to address many concerns at the same time. So, take a few minutes to think about this, and put down the level of your time you would spend on the priorities above, in comments.
The floor is yours!