Rhetoric meets reality (and responsibility)

For all the two 'major parties' constantly struggle to rule the roost, you'd think they would have learned by now it's easier to be in the opposition. From there, you get to snipe at your opponents, while not assuming any of the blame for things. Sadly, most of our leadership caste is far better at the latter than they are actually leading.

This was the fall of the Gingrich Republicans in 1994. Flush with victory after spelling out what seemed a reasonably detailed agenda in the Contract with America, the emboldened GOP bogged down in a game of "payback's a -----" with the Democrats who'd ruled the House for a couple generations. The Newt learned it's a lot easier to be a bombthrower than a statesman.

The current president is learning the same lesson:

As White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel told CNN last week:

It's clear that basically we had a war for eight years that was going on, that's adrift. That we're beginning at scratch, and just from the starting point, after eight years. . . . Before you commit troops, which is--not irreversible, but puts you down a certain path--before you make that decision, there's a set of questions that have to have answers that have never been asked. And it's clear after eight years of war, that's basically starting from the beginning, and those questions never got asked. And what I find interesting and just intriguing from this debate in Washington, is that a lot of people who all of a sudden say, this is now the epicenter of the war on terror, you must do this now, immediately approve what the general said--where, before, it never even got on the radar screen for them.

Hang on a second. It has now been 51 weeks since Obama was elected president, and more than nine months since he took office, and he's just now getting around to asking the "questions . . . that have never been asked"?
But that's not really fair to Obama. After all, he has a busy schedule, what with golf games and pitching the International Olympic Committee and date nights and Democratic fund-raisers and health care and the U.N. Security Council and Sunday morning talk shows and saving the planet from global warming and celebrating the dog's birthday and defending himself against Fox News and all.

Obama polished his national security image during the campaign by (rightly, I believe) criticizing Bush for taking the focus off Afghanistan. His speeches promised a renewed effort to do what it took to finish off those directly responsible for 9/11. But now, confronted with the reality of what that actually means, he seems to be avoiding the decision for as long as possible.

That might be barely tolerable when you're talking typical government programs, as during the Gingrich food fights of the mid 90s. But such indecision is reprehensible when troops already on the ground are paying an ever-increasing price for holding the status quo. Obama has been president nine months. Our participation in World War II only lasted 45 months. It's time to make the hard call, one way or the other... all in, or all out.

But that would require more fortitude and character than the current generation of political elites--of either party--in this country can offer.