The Obama team has been hard at work for weeks now trying to prepare the public for the Debby Downer version of Obama to show up at the debate on Wednesday. Unfortunately for the Obama camp, the Obama that showed up last night was far worse than expected. For one of the few times during Obama’s short public life we were witness to the man that is spoken of by those who work closely with him, but rarely seen in public.
The Obama who does not tolerate disagreement.

There were warnings from various sources that we should expect a lackluster performance from the President since he hasn’t truly been disagreed with by an equal since he took office. True the office of the President of the United States does not have an equal in this world. Barack Obama a citizen of this country does.
What kind of leadership can we expect from a man who doesn’t get told the truth?

Like all countries in our world we have a habit of putting our most successful leaders on our currency. Our money is dominated by the faces of Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson, some of the greatest leaders the world has produced. We all know the stories of George Washington successes in the early years of our Republic. We also know that he did not achieve these things purely on his own. At the beginning of the war he was forced to deal with many subpar Generals, but by the end he had weeded them out and had replaced them with independent thinking men who in their own ways contributed to saving our revolution.
His Cabinet was another group modeled on the same premise that Washington could be most effective if surrounded by independently competent men. His Cabinet was highlighted by the visionary ideals of Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson. No one could mistake these two men as merely yes men.

Lincoln’s Administration composed some of the most noteworthy men in politics at his time. Several of them had opposed him for the nomination of president, one of them even challenged him for his second term. His Generals were even more unruly. The Generals he was forced to deal with came from all parts of the country each bringing with him his own political beliefs and ideas in how the Civil War should be conducted. Their substitution for their own plans over his surely wreaked havoc on his nerves.
In retrospect, the decisions of Washington and Lincoln were remarkably inspired. However to think that they arrived at these thoughts with no prompting, input or suggestions from their advisors and opponents is credit these men with more judgment than they did themselves. They didn’t surround themselves with men who could challenge them for fun, they did it because making the right decision is more important than being right.

The myth has grown that our leaders don’t really need advisors, but those leaders are called Emperors, Dictators and Caesars. Our Presidents don’t dress in Imperial Purple, they were business suits, because they work for us, not us for them.
No leader of a Republic can go four years without his authority being challenged and call himself a representative of the people.
On Wednesday night we saw a President who doesn’t want to be disagreed with, we saw a President who not only believes he is always right, but believes that the things his supporters say about him and his opponent are equally true.

“I think that I’m a better speechwriter than my speechwriters, I know more about policies on any particular issue than my policy directors. And I’ll tell you right that I’m going to think I’m a better political director than my political director”
Barack Obama – 2008.

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