Terry Connelly is dean of the Ageno School of Business at Golden Gate University and is frequently quoted on business, financial, and economic issues by Bay Area local, as well as national, news media.
OK: the financial markets seem to want a Patton or a Grant for the War on Recession; and for a long time they have viewed Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner more like Lincoln’s famous young General McClellan — brightest guy in the Army, but he couldn’t bring himself to battle, just kept circling.
Now perhaps there is another analogy at work. Sure, Geithner has a “staff guy” background. But so did another famous General, who had an equally complex battle to engage. Dwight Eisenhower was famously dissed by his former superior, Douglas MacArthur, as “the best clerk I ever had.” But what Ike had, besides a winning grin, was a mental toughness (needed to deal with Churchill’s monumental ego and equally large strategic flaws), tenacity, and the capacity to get his arms around the whole problem and drive to a comprehensive solution.
Could it be that in this moment of need, President Obama has found his financial General Eisenhower in Mr. Geithner? No one watching his testimony this week before the Congress could doubt his intelligence, dedication, toughness and capacity to see the whole chessboard and calibrate his moves accordingly. And, like Ike, the Secretary seems to be able to learn from his mistakes — a capacity heretofore notably lacking in senior Government officials.
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