These are words that we will, unfortunately, never hear from our current Commander in Chief. In a recent article, Adam Lichtenheld noted that President Clinton had admitted his mistake in not classifying what was going on in Rwanda as genocide. Now, I’m pretty sure the point of that was not to say that Clinton did what was right, for it took him too long to admit that fact. And yes, it did take him too long to admit he was wrong. But he did eventually admit he was wrong. And that’s what’s important for this discussion. Admission of mistakes and ability to learn from such mistakes are a cornerstone of good leadership.
Now with that in mind, let’s compare this approach to Bush’s approach. Seriously, this man’s arrogance is simply astounding. When asked to admit to three mistakes he has made during the second presidential debate, he could not think of one. Bush has been the President of the United States for almost 4 years now. He is forced to make tough decisions everyday. And as we have all been told, “this is hard work”. Well Mr. President, as a junior in college, I don’t have to make these difficult decisions daily, but I can think of plenty of mistakes I’ve made, even just in this last year.
And this inability to admit mistakes is just the beginning of Bush’s poor leadership. Instead of challenging his beliefs to be sure that they are correct, Bush surrounds himself with yes-men and women. The only member of his cabinet who voiced his problems with the administrations decisions was Colin Powell and we know how well that’s going. With Powell out of the picture, no one is left in the president’s close group to chime in with some common sense.
This is not to suggest that the people surrounding Bush aren’t intelligent and incapable of thinking for themselves. Unfortunately, I have almost no hope left that Bush will make an attempt to surround himself with people that not only disagree with him, but have the courage to stand up to him. But alas, only time will tell what will come of the second Bush term.