Thursday, July 12, 2007
Bush the Decider
There’s an interesting opinion piece in the Los Angeles Times today by James MacGregor Burns and Susan Dunn, entitled “What FDR could teach Bush.” The gist of the article is that, unlike FDR, Bush relies on a small group of advisors, principally Vice President Cheney, for help in making his decisions. The cabinet exists to show solidarity with Bush and to carry out his decisions, not to influence them. As a consequence, Mr. Cheney is the most powerful Vice President in our history.
This article about Mr. Bush and his kitchen cabinet advisors reminds me of a story I once heard about the construction of the first railroad in Russia. The engineers laid out two routes for the line to connect Moscow and St. Petersburg. Each route went through a number of cities that lay between the two ends of the line. They decided to let the Tsar have the honor of choosing the route.
Rather than welcome the chance to make a decision on his own, the Tsar was incensed at having to make a decision rather than ratify one made by his advisors. In his anger, he took a pencil and laid out another route, between the two that the engineers had chosen and which missed all the cities. Well, he was the Tsar and he had decided, and that was the route of the rail line.
My take is that Mr. Bush is incapable of making a real decision. He’s not sure of himself. He can’t handle a situation in which two well-informed and intelligent cabinet secretaries present alternative policies, one of which he has to choose. He needs to know that his choice is the correct one, whether given by God or by Dick Cheney. His insistence that he is the “decider” is a transparent effort to hide his own inability to make independent decisions.
This article about Mr. Bush and his kitchen cabinet advisors reminds me of a story I once heard about the construction of the first railroad in Russia. The engineers laid out two routes for the line to connect Moscow and St. Petersburg. Each route went through a number of cities that lay between the two ends of the line. They decided to let the Tsar have the honor of choosing the route.
Rather than welcome the chance to make a decision on his own, the Tsar was incensed at having to make a decision rather than ratify one made by his advisors. In his anger, he took a pencil and laid out another route, between the two that the engineers had chosen and which missed all the cities. Well, he was the Tsar and he had decided, and that was the route of the rail line.
My take is that Mr. Bush is incapable of making a real decision. He’s not sure of himself. He can’t handle a situation in which two well-informed and intelligent cabinet secretaries present alternative policies, one of which he has to choose. He needs to know that his choice is the correct one, whether given by God or by Dick Cheney. His insistence that he is the “decider” is a transparent effort to hide his own inability to make independent decisions.
Labels: " Cheney's influence, "The Decider, First railroad in Russia, James MacGregor Burns, Susan Dunn
