In his slow decision-making, Obama goes with head, not gut

[liberal N proud]

Washington Post

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

President Obama meets with members of his administration in the Situation Room.

President George W. Bush once boasted, "I'm not a textbook player, I'm a gut player." The new tenant of the Oval Office takes a strikingly different approach. President Obama is almost defiantly deliberative, methodical and measured, even when critics accuse him of dithering. When describing his executive style, he goes into Spock mode, saying, "You've got to make decisions based on information and not emotions."

Obama's handling of the Afghanistan conundrum has been a spectacle of deliberation unlike anything seen in the White House in recent memory. The strategic review began in September. Again and again, the war council convened in the Situation Room. The president mulled an array of unappealing options. Next week, finally, he will tell the American public the outcome of all this strategizing.

"He's establishing his decision-making process as being almost diametrically the opposite of the previous administration," says Lawrence Wilkerson, a retired Army colonel who served as Secretary of State Colin L. Powell's chief of staff. Wilkerson, who teaches national security decision-making at George Washington University, says the Bush-Cheney style was "cowboy-like, typical Texas, typical Wyoming, and extremely secretive."

Stephen Wayne, who teaches about the presidency at Georgetown, said: "He's not an instinctive decision-maker as Bush was. He doesn't go with his gut, he thinks with his head, which I think is desirable." Referring to the Afghanistan decision, Wayne said, "I don't think he is an indecisive person, I just think this is a tough one."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/24/AR2009112404225.html?wpisrc=nl_pmheadline

[AllentownJake]

1. It is a no win situation

No matter what he does people are going to die. On a political level, no matter what he does he takes a political hit for it.

[MadMaddie]

3. Bingo!! It was always a no win situation but a decision has to be

made.

[still_one]

6. More people will die depending on which decision is made /nt

[Deja Q]

12. Then I am willing to die.

Just make it quick and painless and don't let me know about it. This is the sort of surprise I like, as I will know nothing about it.

Pity that large hadron collider didn't turn the Earth into a black hole. :(

[NJmaverick]

7. It may be a no win situation but there are degrees of losing

and you can rest assured that Obama will have put in his homework and get us the best possible option.

[AllentownJake]

8. There is no possible good outcome

You've been handed an occupying force in a country that took down both the Russians and the British. The terrain sucks, your foes no every hiding place in the land, and the locals don't trust you.

If you pull out, the country will fall into worse anarchy than it already is in, and any civilian that cooperated with your efforts will be slaughtered.

If you stay you are stuck in a country that can't be occupied, is resistant to westernization, and will use guerrilla war tactics on your troops till you give-up. The leader you are propping up is corrupt and there is evidence he is involved in some form of drug smuggling.

The country is bordered by a corrupt ally to the south, a hostile nation to the east, and three slightly less backward nations to the north.

Oh and you've been there 8 years and support for the effort is sitting at 50-50 domestically and will decrease under casualties.

[NJmaverick]

9. I didn't say good I said best possible outcoming

thank's to George Bush's and the Teabaggers there are no good options but there are options that suck less than others.

[AllentownJake]

11. I think they pretty much all suck equally

This is a Kobyashi Maru type of test on a leader.

[Cirque du So-What]

2. Going with the gut

That's what WhistleAss did, and look where it got us. Besides, his guts have shit for brains.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

4. I have zero problem with him going with his head.

It's the direction he's heading in that's the problem for me...

Generally speaking, I do trust his intellect. The war questions bother me...

[lib2DaBone]

5. Better Yet.. bring the troops home... and nation-build here!

[Deja Q]

10. Agreed. Corporations even subsidize educational costs in other countries.

Just like they do for prescription medications and other niceties.

Then they slash American jobs.

Then beg to be bailed out by American taxpayers.

While still saying "pull yourselves up by your own bootstraps".

If corporate-America did more to help its own, rather than spitting on everyone here, we'd be less antsy over having to save their butts after burning ours.

[jenmito]

13. K&R. Thank you for the article.

[lillypaddle]

14. K&R

[GeorgeGist]

15. Thinking with your head ...

up your ass leads to shitty decisions.

[natrat]

16. what a load, he is a puppet,others call the shots,he makes pretty boy speaches

[jenmito]

17. Wow-you do a perfect imitation of an ignorant RWer.

[IndianaGreen]

18. Very smart people go us into Vietnam

Very smart people are repeating the same mistake in Afghanistan.

And many DUers are still ignoring the Left's warnings, just as they did on PATRIOT and IWR.

The "D" after some people's names stands for Dickhead, not Democrat.