Posted on 01/15/2009 8:03:01 AM PST by CedarDave
There's actually a lot that President-elect Barack Obama can learn from the troubled presidency of George W. Bush. Over the past eight years, I have interviewed President Bush for nearly 11 hours, spent hundreds of hours with his administration's key players and reviewed thousands of pages of documents and notes.
That produced four books, totaling 1,727 pages, that amount to a very long case study in presidential decision-making, and there are plenty of morals to the story. Presidents live in the unfinished business of their predecessors, and Bush casts a giant shadow on the Obama presidency: two incomplete wars and a monumental financial and economic crisis. Here are 10 lessons that Obama and his team should take away from the Bush experience.
1. Presidents set the tone. Don't be passive or tolerate virulent divisions.
2. The president must insist that everyone speak out loud in front of the others, even -- or especially -- when there are vehement disagreements.
3. A president must do the homework to master the fundamental ideas and concepts behind his policies.
4. Presidents need to draw people out and make sure bad news makes it to the Oval Office.
5. Presidents need to foster a culture of skepticism and doubt.
6. Presidents get contradictory data, and they need a rigorous way to sort it out.
7. Presidents must tell the hard truth to the public, even if that means delivering very bad news.
8. Righteous motives are not enough for effective policy.
9. Presidents must insist on strategic thinking.
10. The president should embrace transparency. Some version of the behind-the-scenes story of what happened in his White House will always make it out to the public -- and everyone will be better off if that version is as accurate as possible.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
(BTW the date on the story is Sunday, January 18. Guess Woodwards just sharpening the knife with the online version.)
One take away from Woodward...he makes stuff up.
His first two paragraphs say everythin you need to know about Bob Woodward. His primary goal is to tell you how wonderful he is.
Mr. Woodward, try substituting “The Washington Post” for “The President” in your article.
For example, point out how often the WaPo embraces views that deviate from the official Leftist line.
“..troubled presidency of George W. Bush.”
###
No need to read further.
1) Don't be stupid like Bush was.
2) Don't be dishonest like Bush was.
Hold on to your seat, Bob! You ain't seen nothin' yet!
“Democrat Presidents live in the unfinished business of their predecessors...”
Fixed it. Notice how Bush is never shown as having to pick up the pieces of Clinton’s foreign policy, military draw down, intelligence “wall”, and misguided housing policies.
Already 340 comments on this article at the Compost web site. Many recognize Woodward for what he is and others perform the usual flaming that is symptomatic of BDS (Bush Derangement Syndrome).
#1: Presidents must put American people first: before illegals; before other countries, even those friendly to us; before their own party; before themselves.
There is only 1 rule.
11. A President should never trust the Press, particularly liberal press. They will praise you only until they get in a position to stab you in the back and make themselves look good. Yes, even Liberal Presidents. If you read a good story about yourself, beware the knife.
Bobby will be licking the messiah’s butt like the rest of the libtards.
Bush = frog
Woodward = scorpion
Drink cocoa to be happy, and hold hands crossing the street.
Though I disagreed with a lot of his domestic policy (e.g. immigration, not toeing the line on the budget or keeping spending in line, and his most recent bailouts [without pointing out where the real blame lays]), he kept us safe for seven years after 9/11.
I am trying to get a ticket to go to the welcome home celebration in Midland on Tuesday. I was there to send him off and would like to welcome him back to Texas.
Yes. I disagree strongly with the President on a number of issues and feel that he has severely damaged the Republican party, and been a poor standard bearer for Conservative ideology.
That said, he is a good man of integrity, who handled the crucial issue of his Presidency with courage and true patriotism.
His Presidency is no more “troubled” than any other, and certainly less than that of the impeached, amoral used car salesman who he succeeeded.
The talentless, egotist Woodward is employing the old liberal double standard. Again.
The socialists "are and always have been" globalists first.. The treason is deep and far reaching.. in both parties.. Is there any difference between the socialist, communist and democrat parties?.. The republican party seems to have been taken over by the globalists.. its not about capitalism ANY MORE.. but the capitalization of socialism(China/Russia)..
As for honesty, however, the entire "Bush lied" mantra has obscured the fact that Bush was and remains honest to a fault. His open admission that there were fewer WMD's in Iraq than he expected is an example - a perfectly honest statement that played into the profoundly dishonest propaganda game his enemies - I won't dignify them with the term "opponents" - were playing. His steadfast and open adherence to immigration amnesty infuriated his conservative base. He could have been disingenuous on the topic - nearly everyone else in D.C. is - but he was not. It isn't, pace Woodward, a case of lack of political acumen. No one reaches the office of the Presidency for two terms in the sort of fog people who ought to know better insist is inhabited by a feckless and ignorant Bush. It just doesn't happen, not even in the person of the otherwise genuinely feckless and ignorant Jimmy Carter.
It is useless, however, to expect that sort of honesty from the likes of Bob Woodward - his job selects against it. One might as well hope for an objective view of Louis XVI from Robespierre. And so let's take pieces such as this one for what they are, a last, desperate indulgence in a comfortable and disappearing hatred. Mr. Woodward can console himself with the notion that it is change he can believe in.
Woodward will be proven wrong.
Can you imagine Woodward writing anything like this about Obama in four years?
When he says he spent hundreds of hours with “...administration key players...” that means Colin Powell.
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