Leadership
Former President Harry Truman used to like to say, “the buck stops here”. Former President George W Bush said, “I’m the decider”. One of these men will be remembered as a great President and the other will not. Taking responsibility for ones decisions and their consequences is a large part of leadership as well as individual greatness.
Yesterday we learned that President Obama had made an unannounced visit, shortly after midnight, to Dover Air Force Base in order to be present when the bodies of US soldiers and citizens recently killed in Afghanistan arrived. The President greeted each coffin with a salute. He also met with family members who were present. Later the President said that this experience would weigh in his decision about the future of US involvement in Afghanistan.
It is not clear just how this visit will weigh in President Obama’s deliberations but what is clear is that he understands the human costs of war. As the commander in chief, he stood tall and symbolically showed that, “the buck stopped with him”.
This entry was posted on October 30, 2009 at 10:07 am and is filed under Barack Obama, Democratic Party, Dick Cheney, George Bush, Politics, Republican Party. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.
Tags: Afghanistan, harry truman, leadership
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