As president, you can GET all kinds of ADVICE from all kinds of people. But at the end of the DAY, when it comes TIME to make that decision, as president, all you have to guide you are your values and your vision and the life experiences that make you who you are.
I caddied for Dwight Eisenhower and Omar Bradley long before they became GENERALS or PRESIDENT, for that MATTER. Just between you and me, Bradley tipped better than Eisenhower did.
It's not trickle down economics. The PROBLEM that the president has is that he's rudderless on the economy. I mean, he doesn't QUITE know what to do. It's a wake-up on Monday and try to FIGURE it out. It takes time to turn a supertanker, so you need to know where you need to go.
The conduct of President BUSH's war of choice has been plagued with incompetent civilian LEADERSHIP decisions that have COSTMANY lives and rendered the war on and occupation of Iraq a strategic policy disaster for the United STATES.
From the START of his administration, President Barack Obama had tried to lower tensions with RUSSIA and refocus American attention on a rising China; he had made CLEAR he WANTED no part in the PROBLEMS of the post-Soviet periphery.
My kids did not know that Obama was the FIRSTBLACKPRESIDENT. I felt LIKE I needed to tell them because I felt like, 'How could you not know that?' But for the ones who didn't know, he was basically the only president they KNEW.
But Hale's warning the President about going to Dallas was that there was great infighting AMONG the members of the DEMOCRATICPARTY and the Democratic stars in the STATE and he didn't WANT the President to become involved in a factional disagreement.
I WANTED all my VISITS to be official. When I SENT the pass back with a note, I had no idea it WOULD antagonize the president. I found out years LATER that it did.
A failure to act is a terrible, stunning legacy for any LEADER. But FARWORSE when it is the president of the United States. And that's the point driven home by Romney's selection of Ryan, who DARED to lead when OBAMA did not.
While we DANCE in the STREETS and pat ourselves on the back for being a nation GREAT enough to reach beyond racial divides to elect our first African-American president, let us not forget that we remain a nation STILL proudly practicing PREJUDICE.