Testing a new President

Testing of a new President.

Joe Bidden recently warned a listening crowd that Barack Obama, a brilliant 47 year old new President, will be tested early in his Presidency by some sort of international incident.

This is a typical Joe Bidden gaff. However, judging from what has happened with previous new Presidents, it could very well be true. The refreshing thing about Joe Bidden is that he is not scripted and he will tell it the way he sees it even if someone could argue that it wasn’t a wise issue to bring up in the campaign. The Republicans have jumped all over it which is to be expected.

McCain's response was interesting. He claimed that he had already been tested back in the early 1960's during the Cuban Missile Crisis. He explained that he had set in a cockpit of a fighter jet on a carrier off the coast of Cuba with a target in his lap. I fail to see this as a test. He was waiting for orders from someone up the chain of command who was being tested – President John Kennedy.

He didn’t mention it, but serving time in a North Vietnamese prison camp is a personal test and he passed that test – he survived which is admirable. But, many people have faced personal tests, including Joe Bidden.

Personal tests are not equivalent to the kinds of tests a President might see early in their administration. Quite honestly, enemies of the U.S. could care less that John McCain set in an airplane with a target back in the early 1960’s or in a POW camp in Vietnam back in 1970’s. The notion that he is immune from a test from our enemies is in my estimation bogus, wishful thinking.

What is disconcerting is John McCain’s response. His gut reaction is to think about shooting someone. Luckily, John Kennedy, a war hero in his own right, did not subscribe to this kind of thinking. What a Presidential test requires is a carefully thought out, crafted, and executed plan from our country based on a multitude of choices at their disposal. John Kennedy did that! He used brinkmanship diplomacy to resolve this test with no shots fired, no WW III, and the Soviet Union backing down.

I think we could have avoided the war in Iraq if President Bush had thought through his options on how to deal with Saddam Hussein rather than a “Cowboy” gut reaction. We may have even quickly destroyed al Qaida in Afghanistan and been out of both of these conflicts long ago had our leadership been thoughtful.

Maybe we should think about John McCain’s comments and his “maverick” solutions to crises. By contrast, judging from Barack Obama’s method of decision making, we can take some small measure of comfort that he would think it through. I think that is pretty close to what Colin Powell suggested when he endorsed Obama.