President compromises on bridge construction
President Obama navigates White House argument between engineers and staff. “Half a bridge is better than none,” says President.
“Why,” asked the President, “do my bridges keep collapsing?”
Navigating competing philosophies is always difficult for a President. For a President, like President Barack Obama, who prides himself on crafting compromises with opponents, inflexibility is perhaps the only mortal sin. President Obama has long criticized Republicans in Congress, for example, for not compromising and passing his laws.
But a recent controversy in the White House has tested our modern Solomon’s abilities, when top White House policy advisors disagreed with high-ranking Army Engineers over a bridge in the Middle East.
Policy advisors told him, we do not build bridges in Iraq. Army Engineers said, yes, we have specialists in building bridges, they’re experienced in the Middle East, and we should build this bridge.
President Obama demonstrated his logical primacy with a simple compromise. According to the President, “we will satisfy both sides of the debate. We will build half a bridge.”
Critics scoffed at the proposal. Republicans, in particular, mocked the President on Twitter. But an informal poll of policy experts in national newsrooms showed clear support for the President’s happy medium. “The President showed once again why he’s earned the nickname King Solomon,” said Professor Barbara Boopstein, a Walden College foreign policy expert. “He has, once again, split the baby.”
- How Obama Abandoned Democracy in Iraq: Emma Sky
- “But after one meeting with Hill, General O strode down the embassy corridor looking visibly upset. “He told me that Iraq is not ready for democracy, that Iraq needs a Shia strongman,” the general said, “and Maliki is our man.” Odierno had objected that that was not what the Iraqis wanted. They were rid of one dictator, Hussein, and did not want to create another.”
- Obama ignores generals’ advice on troop levels for unprecedented sixth time: Rowan Scarborough
- “In the end, President Obama was forced to listen to his generals—not his political instincts—on Afghanistan troop levels, and he decided to split the difference.” (Memeorandum thread)
- Obama Rejected “Best Military Advice”: Dustin Walker at Real Clear Politics
- “Instead, President Obama opted for a more modest course, sending an additional 475 troops to assist Iraqi and ethnic Kurdish forces; 150 of those forces will form more than a dozen teams and embed with Iraqi Security Forces at the brigade level and above, according to the Pentagon.” (Memeorandum thread) (Hat tip to Aleister at Legal Insurrection)
- Obama vs. the generals: Marc A. Thiessen at The Washington Post
- “Rarely has a U.S. general given his commander in chief better military advice, only to see it repeatedly rejected.” (Memeorandum thread)
- The Tyranny of Clichés
- Jonah Goldberg takes down political clichés, such as “violence never solves anything” and “I don’t believe in labels”.
More Barack Obama
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- Former President Barack Obama promises to tear down the barriers of hate, and end the divisions that plague shelters. “We will restore the Sanctuary’s image as the last, best hope for acceptance for all those touched by domestic violence.”
- Trump vs. the Media: authenticity and humility
- A meme running around comparing what President Trump wrote in the Holocaust memorial guestbook to what Senator Obama wrote shows a surprising humility in President Trump.
- The Last Defense against Donald Trump?
- When you’ve dismantled every other defense, what’s left except the whining? The fact is, Democrats can easily defend against Trump over-using the power of the presidency. They don’t want to, because they want that power intact when they get someone in.
- Election lessons: be careful what you wish for
- Republicans should learn from the Democrats’ mistake of the primary season: be careful what you wish for, you might just get… half of it. They wanted Donald Trump as Hillary Clinton’s opponent.
- Lessons for new Presidents: Entangling long-term alliances
- How will our foreign policy change after President Obama’s Fortress America?
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More compromise
- A tale of two negotiators
- If you want to see how Republicans in Congress fail to pass successful reforms, compare the House Obamacare “repeal” with the White House’s budget.
- Election lessons: Obamacare and how compromise works
- As Republicans work into 2017, they need to learn how negotiations and compromise work. President Trump may not be the best teacher, but he at least understands how to negotiate.
- Global weirding and the compromise class
- Conservatism does not grant government more power: compromise between conservatism and the left does. But compromise between the truth and a lie is always a lie, in the case of global catastrophes, catastrophic as well.
- The tree of compromise
- Sometimes compromise is necessary. But always remember, a compromise between the truth and a lie is always a lie.
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