Six Sigma Obama: Marking His First 100 Days as President

Barack Obama's two-year campaign for the White House displayed, in virtually all his speeches, policy statements and promises, a determination to deliver, not just change we could believe in, but six sigma leadership as well -- and not just for the United States. It was going to be change of Renaissance proportions, or so it often sounded (for more on the Renaissance, click here).


To mark the first 100 days of his Presidency, report cards are flying in from all over the planet. And they are all, it seems to me, quite good. All, that is, bar perfection -- and bar the likes of Newt Gingrich and Karl Rove. This morning, on CNN, some journalist types were asked how they rated him. I saw several 9/10s and one 7/10. That was getting close to accurate, but I sensed that they were suppressing some of their enthusiasm. There was no need to. It is early days yet, and if you feel that something's good, it's good. Go ahead, say it. I believe I heard one commentator say that Obama has been the most effective US president since FDR. He wasn't mincing words -- there were no words to mince.


So, how do I myself rate his Presidency over the 100 days, in terms of hard-nosed policy actions and nuance, in terms of substance and even form? I say, without equivocation, Six Sigma! Hard days will surely come in the days ahead, as the same rubber mets more of the road, and the ratings may/will slide. Comes with the territory. But things look pretty optimistic right now, around the world generally, despite the economic meltdown and the very recent outbreak of swine flu.

As a Kenyan, I have even more reason to be enthusiastic, given the kind of toxic, roller-coaster, self-serving leadership that our President, Mwai Kibaki, and Prime Minister, Raila Odinga, continue to display here at home. It is a shame tempered only by the knowledge that Obama, one of us, shines by example elsewhere; and that, precisely for that reason and that example, all is not lost.


Didn't Kenneth Marende, Speaker of Kenya's National Assembly, reinforce that essential optimism in the substance and nuance of his Solomonic ruling yesterday afternoon in Parliament, when he declared himself (to the collective relief of the nation) interim Leader of the House Business Committee for as long as Kibaki and Raila Odinga (the One Sigma duo) fail to agree on one, and publicly wrangle? Let Marende hold the seat till 2012, if you ask me! Who knows, perhaps we have just dicovered in him Kenya's Plan B!