Obama’s Problem: He Can’t UNlearn.

Ask anyone who has studied the process of learning. The hardest and most critical step is unlearning what you know, something our President clearly cannot do.

On November 2nd, the American people gave our President a clear and unambiguous message: we do not like what you have been doing and we want you to change direction. It was obvious at his press conference on November 3rd that he did not hear or failed to understand the message. Why?

The more successful one is, the harder it is for that person to unlearn. The higher you go, the more proof you get that you are right, whether you are CEO of a company, Chairman of Surgery, or especially the top of the food chain: President of the U.S. Why should you question what you know or do? The title on your door proves that what you know is right.

A wise person (notice that I did not write a smart person) wrote a bumper sticker: “Don’t believe everything you think.” This aphorism is highly practical for two reasons.

First, whatever exists and is true today, the one absolute certainty is that tomorrow will be different. Second, until and unless future outcomes prove that you were right, you may be wrong.

When I was a child, doctors used to shrink the tonsils with x-rays. Thirty years later, we learned that irradiation produced thyroid tumors. Such treatment, once considered best medical practice, is now malpractice. Things change.

At Columbia (presumably), then-Mister Obama learned that socialism is the best, most humane political system. It is probably no accident that radical socialists Cloward and Pivens were also Professors at Columbia.

The President may have been a very smart student then but is now a very poor unlearner. Three compelling facts seem to have no impact on him.

Fact #1: Capitalism is the reason why the USA is the richest, most productive nation. As we are witnessing, the means by which China is becoming an economic powerhouse is through implementing capitalist principles.
Fact #2: Socialism and its entitlement mentality are very obviously failing in Europe. Cases in point: Greece, Great Britain, etc. The extreme form of socialism is communism. The world knows where that led.
Fact #3: Most Americans want the U.S. to stay capitalist and reject any move toward the left, toward socialism.

Despite these facts, President Obama refuses to say or even consider that his policies are flawed and unwanted, that he needs to unlearn, and that he must change direction.

With the way things are going, some are beginning to question whether our children will have better lives than we have. To achieve continuous improvement requires continuous unlearning. To learn the new and better, you must let go of the old: what you currently know is true. Unlearning is something President Obama demonstrably cannot do. Is it any wonder that things are not improving?

Having an “Undo” button may sound like a great idea. However, you must unlearn what you know in order to undo what you did. President Obama cannot do this. Therefore, even if he had an undo button, he wouldn’t use it. Obamacare should be what Billy Cristal called in the movie Cityslickers, “A Do-over.” You have to unlearn the old before you can learn the new-and-better, and then do-over.

Since the President we currently have is incapable of unlearning and will not change, regrettably we will have to change Presidents (two years’ hence).

System MD

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