Democrats question Obama's handling of major issues

Time for president to take a lesson in management?

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NUMBER OF DEMOCRATS QUESTIONING PRESIDENT'S HANDLING OF MAJOR ISSUES FACING AMERICA

RICH KARLGAARD: I don't think he was ever cut out to be a manager. Look president Obama is many things. He's a law school professor, he's a writer, he tends to be cool, aloof, he's a loner, he's an introvert. These are good qualities in a writer or law school professor. There terrible qualities in a leader or manager, particularly if you're the CEO of the United States and the leader of the free world.

RICK UNGAR: This is a tough one for me. I have to tell you it has not been a good year for our president. I have been a frequent critic of the VA so I can't disagree there. I do think that were coming down a little hard on him on the Ebola thing, a little too soon. We've had one unfortunate death; we've got a long way to go until you can say it's been mismanaged. All in all though I hate to say it, I don't give this president high marks.

MIKE OZANIAN: I agree with Rich it's not in his DNA, but I disagree with the comparison to a CEO. I Think a president is not a CEO, he's a leader. And to be a great leader you have to be able to number one, be honest, which president Obama has not. Number two, you have to be a uniter, president Obama is a divider, he puts people of different classes against each other.

STEVE FORBES: Well his rigid ideologue is not learned from reality. Whether you're a manager, or just a person with common sense you'll learn experience is a teacher and this man refuses to learn from it. So I don't want a super manager in terms of shuffling paper, I want somebody who has good judgment, puts this country in the right direction, and the American people take it from there. This president is incapable of doing that.

ELIZABETH MACDONALD: We know that the president has said he will use his pen and his phone, but he tends to use it to beat up on oil executives or the banks or to intervene in health-care. Why not use the pen and phone instead of being reactive, be preventive. It always feels like were hurting cats after the fact.

POLICE: APPLE'S NEW SMARTPHONE SECURITY SYSTEM IS A SECURITY RISK

JOHN TAMNY: Our pursuit of happiness implies a right to privacy. I think if Apple were to do this they would certainly lose their cool factor if so, but there's also an economic story behind this. The great investor Ken Fisher always points out that technology will always be faster than will politicians be. So it's an exciting economic development that we can possibly innovate our way around the feds and the barrios they put up to growth. If Apple gives in that sends a very chilling message that will not help the economy.

RICK UNGAR: I think the FBI might want to go have a chat with the NSA because it was their behavior that led to companies like Apple taking a step like this. I see law enforcements point of view, I do. I also worry about people who are in some trouble who can be tracked down other wise and now won't be able to be tracked down. But this has to be solved through an understanding of when it is legal to monitor innocent people's phone and when it isn't.

STEVE FORBES: In this case I guarantee you hackers in China and Russia probably already broken into the system and their ought to be a golden key I hate to say it, but there are times when you need-with a search warrant to get information about potential terrorist act or criminal acts.

ELIZABETH MACDONALD: You can get at this information in the cloud; you can get a warrant for the information in the cloud. I think what is going to happen is there will be a back door built into Apple and all these secure systems. Let's face it the telecoms have been allowing wire-tapping for years with regular old rotary phones. This will not stand; I don't think this will stand.

RICH KARLGAARD: I just bought an Apple iPhone 6 last week and I don't like being the implicit accusation of being a criminal or having dark motives for buying it. But look I think in a real world Rick and Steve are right; you know civil liberty is a great value. I don't think it can be as absolute as John wants it to be. In World War I and World War II we gave up some civil liberties to try to win a war. Did we overdo it in some cases? Like in turning Japanese Americans in World War II, yes. It's a dangerous world out there so I have some sympathy for the FBI and the NSA.

SOME SCHOOLS ARE SCRAPPING SWING SETS OVER CONCERNS ABOUT SAFETY AND LAWSUITS

STEVE FORBES: Yes, it's "wuss-afying" our kids and also obesifying America. One of the ways kids burn off energy is through recess, through having sports, through swings, and things like that. So while the lawyers are fattening up our kids, their fattening up their wallets at the same time.

RICK UNGAR: It's silly how can a kid not be able to swing? I will say this though about tort lawyers. I sometimes think we overdo it. Everybody hates one until you need one. The solution to these things can be found in other ways for instance, all you got to do at the beginning of the school year is ask parents to sign an assumption of risk if there that nervous about it, and problem goes away.

SABRINA SCHAEFFER: This is the end result of our culture of alarmism which has now sort of put alarms on everything that we do, especially for parents with kids. Look right now the nanny state is dictating what our kids are going to eat, whether they can play on the swings or on the monkey bars, even if they can bring Chap Stick to school. It's absolute nonsense.

MIKE OZANIAN: I agree 100 percent. I have a seven year old daughter. And last year when she was in first grade there was a parent who complained about bullying, an official bullying complaint because allegedly someone has taken a ribbon out of her daughters hair at the playground. Now this may sound funny but these school's now have to have a bullying expert. So instead of focusing on teaching our children, and allowing them to play in the right sort of setting, they got this kind of stuff. It's absurd.

JOHN TAMNY: I think it's a combination of trial lawyers and the modern helicopter parent. Either way it's unfortunate. Bill Gates always says that success is a lousy teacher. People need to fall down on occasion; it helps them to evolve positively.

STOCKS THAT WORK FOR YOU, SO YOU DON'T HAVE TO WORK

MIKE OZANIAN: TITAN INT'L (TWI)

ELIZABETH MACDONALD: LINDSAY CORP (LNN)