Hand on the Throttle

Many years ago a math teacher of mine had a rather charming expression for students who were attentive … he said that "they had their hands on the throttle and their eyes on the rail.” Now this country has a rather inattentive chief executive who has "his hand on the five iron and his eye on the sand trap.” Yes, I know I am covering Maureen Dowd who also used President Obama’s penchant (obsession) for golf as a metaphor for his failed presidency … see: NY Times Item. But let us face it … the reason the world is in such a mess right now is that our president refuses to focus on his job.

Obama doesn’t really seem to give a rat’s patootie that ISIS has turned what was a reasonably successful Iraq campaign into a maniacal morass … or that Putin is on the march. All our investments of lives and treasure in Iraq have now gone for want. Yes he gives a nice Teleprompter talk about how much he is concerned about this ISIS threat … and has some bombs dropped on a few targets … but then grabs his putter and meets Alonzo Mourning for some more inattentiveness on the links.

I’ve always been rather perplexed at the vitriol directed at Dick Cheney during the Bush 43 years. Yes, he, early-on, had a series of private meetings with CEOs of energy companies about how to formulate a national energy policy … big f-ing deal! How many of such non-transparent sit-downs has our current president had from which we can also draw equally nefarious inferences? At least after 9/11, Dick Cheney help the Bush administration formulate policies and operations that pushed back al Qaeda into the shadows. Now we see that al Qaeda is fearful of ISIS … that new band of radical Islamists led by a former U.S. prisoner who was released in 2009 … see: Fox News Item.

So we have a contrast in management styles … the adored Barack Obama who leads from (his) behind … and the reviled Dick Cheney who got things done. Cheney at the very least had his hand on the throttle and his eye on the rail.