It’s not confusing. He sees this as an opportunity to move up in his career. He likely thinks managing the small group of professionals he does at the WH has prepared him for managing the VA and he can rise to the occasion. The fact the rest of Trump team is actively trying to dismantle the programs they are in charge of will make his performance look better in comparison.
The “great genes” line is also one that Trump himself has repeatedly used to describe himself, and yes, it does have those white superiority overtones when he says it. Knowing his repetitive speech patterns and drive to push his point of view into others’ heads, he probably said it many times while the doctor was examining him.
Ronny, apparently being a really excellent “interpersonal politician,” easily realized Trump wanted to hear those exact words in his report.
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No one with the “aw shucks” persona Jackson presents with is as innocent as they appear. No one with a scintilla of sense would accept a job in this administration, especially at this time. That Jackson does not seem to understand that shows him to be either very naive or a fellow believer of Trumpism. His “good genes” comment is either a case of hero worship or ass kissing from a weak man. Take your pick either way Jackson is a fool.
Exactly the right person to run the VA for Trump. This appointment is no accident, nor a dumb choice.
Trump has a special talent for finding exactly the right MDs for cabinet positions.
Some White House veterans privately say they’re mystified at why Jackson is willing to move from practicing medicine to the insult-laden world of Trump-era politics at the head of scandal-plagued agency.
Two words: Death Wish.
He’s set up to fail. Trump sullies everything he touches. In the words of Jordan Peele, Get Out.
Every one is focusing naturally on the VA Health Care System, but what about the other massive parts of the VA charge,the benefits such as housing and all the other areas the VA deals with. Dr. Jackson has no experience whatsoever with those.
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You make a good point about the value – the need – for those who run the VA to be patient-centered; and if he’d been picked to head, say, a large hospital, smallish hospital system or maybe even one of the smaller regional VA systems I’d be somewhat more hopeful about his tenure, though even that would be a challenge. But of course this is a massive, massively complex bureaucracy [ETA, @karenv gets more specific there]; and even if he’s smart enough to know how much he’ll have to delegate to others, figuring out how to do even that is tricky – especially with the VA stacked with political appointees bent on privatization who’d be happy to “prove” it’s terminally dysfunctional. I’m glad to know of Jackson’s opposition to privatization (hope he means it); but if the Trumpists were able to sandbag Shulkin, who was an experienced manager and well-liked by the vets (and good reporting strongly suggests that sandbagging is exactly what it was), I shudder to think what they’ll be able to do to Jackson.
Personally, I would bet on this being the reason Trump chose him.
O.k., but think of it this way. Replace ‘patient’ with ‘customer’ and you’ll see what I mean.
Who is better equipped to hire staff or use outside consultants to measure and evaluate that 'good medical care", how it’s delivered, what changes are needed, ad infinitum.
A doctor or an experienced non-doctor manager steeped in customer (nee: patient) service research?
Or, put another way, a polished business pro who has to regularly the defend the budget, spending at hand and other financial issues with wily Senators and Representatives, but also lobby these same slippery politicians (read: Republiscums) to get more funding or to prevent cuts? A doctor or…
I think the answer is also self-evident when that blithering idiot Ben Carson was put in charge of HUD. Perhaps a former and good doctor, the guy was and is in way over his head and was from Day 1. Now, a similar scenario is playing out now where perhaps a well-intentioned, soon-to-be former doctor will sit at the very top of a massive bureaucracy and ask…what do I do now?
He sounds like a nice and competent man. I wish him the best in everything he does. But unless he is the slyest person around and was just buttering Trump’s buns so he could he get the position he’s nominated for and has brilliant ideas about how to steer the VA into the future, I’m afraid he will be eaten up by the political storms surrounding the position. I hope I am pleasantly surprised, because as far as I can see, he will get the job.
Eric Shinseki (as a former Army Chief of Staff) was in charge of a much bigger and complex organization than Adm Jackson ever has, but he eventually had to resign as the Secretary of Veterans Affairs when the problems at the VA first came to light. I’m afraid I can’t imagine Jackson doing any better given his experience, etc.