President Obama as an Engineer

Now of course when Obama makes a poor decision, like his backpedaling on gay rights, I don't like to associate him with the field of engineering, which is filled with people who typically are contractually obligated to fulfill promises to clients in a timely manner. In this case his clients were the gay voters, and he contractually obligated himself to them when he promised swift action on gay marriage and DADT policies.

But the news that Obama is continuing to mull options in Afghanistan not only pleases me, but it would seem to be a very engineer-like strategy to decision making, so of course I approve. Obama refuses to back down on patient rumination, he considers several designs with equal care, he is confident that given enough time to consider the problem, a successful strategy can be developed, and although his subordinates believe in their strategies, he refuses to just delegate responsibility for the decision making, because he acknowledges responsibility for failure will rest nearly entirely on his shoulders. These are exactly the types of behaviors that are developed in young engineers to make them successful old ones.

I humbly submit that if he continues to think like an engineer our young President will grow to be a successful old one.


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