Writing of President Barack Obama’s recent climb-downs on an attack on Syria and on a nomination of Lawrence Summers, Perry Bacon, Jr., writes that “Obama seems to have decided he is not ‘the decider,’ the term George W. Bush used in articulating his role as president.” Though Bacon disagrees with Obama’s initial decisions on both Syria and the Summers nomination, this is a largely fawning piece. “Some have suggested these moves point to a weakened president, lacking the ability to sway members of Congress or the American public to support him or the boldness and gumption to simply charge ahead anyway.” Bacon argues that Obama listens and “at times is ready to toss aside his opinions, and that should be applauded.”[1]
- [1]Perry Bacon, Jr., “Barack Obama: Not ‘the decider,’ but a president who listens,” Grio, September 16, 2013, http://thegrio.com/2013/09/16/barack-obama-not-the-decider-but-a-president-who-listens/↩