Your points are well taken.

However, if I would want to be obstinate, I could “see” your Bush/Obama golfing comparison, and “raise” you with Bush’s 33% of the time on vacation (487 days at Camp David, 490 days at his Texas Ranch. LINK)

… “I could?” … Well, I guess I just did, didn’t I? Sorry.

More seriously, of the several options available to the President, none of them are very good or desirable options. It is very difficult to choose the less poor option. As we used to sarcastically say in my past life….

… “Indecision is the key to flexibility.”

(Not to make light of this serious matter, but I think it applies.. How appropriate it is, is up for debate.)

Sorry for the mistake above – it took Pres. Bush 2 years and 10 months to play as much golf as The One (and the Lightworker has done 23 fundraisers (vs. 6 for W – all of this courtesy of http://www.thebarackobamawatch.com/What_If_Bush_Had_Done_It.html). I imagine he could have finished more than 1 chapter of Lessons in Disaster by skipping a few rounds of golf, non?

Two things – first of all, I think it is harder for many of us to cut The One some slack, given that he has already played as much golf in 9 months as W. did in two years (while engaging in fund raising and politicking for a very corrupt N.J. governor).

Secondly, Lessons in Disaster is 320 pages long (including I presume footnotes and index). Just how long does the Bestest and Brightest Team of Rivals and Smartest Folks What Ever Headed a White House (ever) need to read a 320 page book?

Research and due process? You are kidding, right? As stated by me above, Obama spent 18 months telling us Afghanistan is the necesssary war. I would have thought that statement would have been backed up with the research and due process necessary to stake your candidacy on it.

Even if we don’t take that into consideration – the Cowardin-Chief has had Gen. McChrystal’s recommendations since July. Just how long does someone need to say yes to option 1, 2 or 3 – especially when those options have been presented to you by the person you handpicked to do just that.

For a bunch of people that spent five years trashing GWB over “not listening to the generals”, not deploying enough troops, the silence from the left is deafening. Not so easy for those of us with skin in the game. Get in, or get out, Mr. President. Stop playing political poker with my chips.

I think the President would get cut a wee more slack if he hadn’t already golfed more in his first 9 or so months of office than Pres. Bush did in 2 years. http://www.politico.com/click/stories/0910/obama_ties_bush_on_golf.html Oh, and the fund raising and campaigning for corrupt N.J. pols doesn’t help either http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/10/23/obama-hits-the-fundraising-circuit/ . At the end of the day this is someone who has never held executive office, and we are going to pay a price in blood not just for his learning curve but for his own choice to forgo consensus for hyper-partisanship that leads him to need to spend so much more time fund raising and politicking (and apparently golfing…).

ps: Lessons in Disaster is 320 pages (including footnotes and index I imagine – just how long does it take The Brightest Team of Rivals Ever to read one book?