Obama Is the Anti-Cowboy

Barack Obama’s prolonged Afghanistan strategy review has if nothing else distinguished him from his predecessor—Obama is anything but the “gut player” Dubya claimed to be. In fact, he’s put on “a spectacle of deliberation unlike anything seen in the White House in recent memory,” writes Joel Achenbach of the Washington Post. Dick Cheney called it “dithering,” but supporters think the public’s ready for a more thoughtful president.

“He's establishing his decision-making process as being almost diametrically the opposite of the previous administration,” says Colin Powell’s former chief of staff. Bush’s process was “cowboy-like…and extremely secretive.” Obama himself isn’t worried about the critics. “I think the American people understand that my job here is to get it right,” he told CBS recently. “I’m less concerned about perceptions.” (More Barack Obama stories.)