This delay, this months-long dithering is dangerous. The Soviets watched very carefully when Ronald Reagan fired the air traffic controllers for striking illegally. They were impressed by his swift and sure decisiveness. With Reagan, the KGB reported to the Kremlin party bosses, “words are deeds.” Obama’s Hamlet act is growing stale.
President Kennedy knew how important the presidency is. He eloquently said: “I do not shrink from this responsibility. I welcome it.”
Could it be that Obama’s very public shrinking from the responsibility of decision is what is causing his own shrinking in the American public’s support? We don’t need a president who, in the words of Newsweek editor Evan Thomas “hovers above us all, sort of a god.” What we need is a president who understands what Harry Truman meant when he posted that now-famous sign on his desk in the Oval Office: “The buck stops here.”
Obama's "dithering" has worked, so far, because it was in stark contrast to Bush's decisiveness. The public had grown tired of Bush, so the opposite of Bush seemed refreshing. At the end of the day, though, good leaders tend to be decisive. Obama should focus more on being a good leader and less on being the antiBush ...
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