So here is my perspective on this whole fascinating, entertaining, burt very serious moment in our national politics.
First off, i want to say i am a doctor. I spent 12 years in schooling and training before being given a license to care for lives entrusted to me. I discovered during my last 13 years of practice that i was also quite interested and good at managing the operational structures and business planning for running a lean, high-quality, low cost practice that provides good healthcare and cost outcomes for the patients and my hospital institutions.
When i stepped from the clinical side of my work into the administrative/management side, something became crystal clear....
95% of physicians are completely INEPT at running a operationally and financially efficient organization or practice.
Now it is not a knock on our doctors. It's a simple matter of fact that we spend over a decade each in educating ourselves on the huge amount of knowledge required to practice medicine competently. There is precious little time for a wider ranging education on practice management and organizational functioning.
So how does this translate to the debacle that is Mitt Romney?
Simply, i would pose to you he is NOT a stupid man. Not by far. He is very good at what he does; exploit every nook and crany of the capitalist system to make wealth for himself and his shareholders. That's what our country believes in as a capitalistic society.
But now that Mitt is entering the biggest stage of politics, rather than the smaller governorships that are so easily bought and paid with money nowadays, his absolute inpetitude is being displayed for everyone to see.
It is no different that what occured in healthcare in the 50s-80s when physicians ran their industry into the ground and thus created the openning for venture capitalists to enter the healthcare arena with HMO's, medical liability attorneys, and the variety of other capitalistic drivers that caused an exponential increase in healthcare costs. For 30 years, doctors had no recourse by to stand by and watch their industry be taken over by lawyers, MBAs, and other profit driven industry players.
So now i watch and listen to the nearly retired physicians bitch and moan about their loss of autonomy and incomes and think to myself, "well, you guys were so busy feeding at the trough of unlimited moneymaking of the 70s and 80s and cared nothing for the overall healthcare cost to your patients and community. No wonder the vultures swooped in!"
Ineptitude.
That's Mitt's Achilles heel that cannot be bought or manufactured. He is a weekend warrior softball afficionado trying to get the starring role in the MLB.
He's out of his league...