Let’s just be happy (even thankful) that President Obama is trying to make decisions based on facts, research, and the expertise of government.   Joel Achenbach, assessing the president’s leadership style in the Washington Post, throws in the image of Obama as a “Mr. Spock”-like, and contrasts him with President Bush, who claimed to lead “from the gut.”

But Obama couldn’t have won the presidency without a strong emotional drive, and he clearly didn’t aspire to the mantle of technocrat.  He did talk, in the campaign, about things like restoring science to its rightful place in government policymaking and the importance of diplomacy, which implies knowledge of facts on the ground.

The world is too complicated a place for even the best fact-based analysis to work every time.  But logical, reasoned inquiry and decision-making are part of a process that can build on itself, like scientific inquiry.  And when “mistakes are made,” it’s easier to find out where and why.

So let’s be thankful our present president favors his brain over other parts of his anatomy in making decisions.  This makes him different from at least a couple of his predecessors.

Ned Hodgman

Comment RSS - You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.