"Ninety-nine percent of failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses." — George Washington Carver
Imagine the media outcry if, every time former President G.W. Bush had spoken about the aftermath of September 11, 2001, he mentioned the fact that his predecessor, President Bill Clinton, had let the opportunity to kill Osama bin Laden pass by.
Did you ever hear President Bush mention Clinton's presidential decisions in relation to his own actions? Of course, none of us heard any such remarks. Bush was not a whiner. He took the rap for his own decisions, no matter how bad they may have seemed in hindsight.
Now, at the other end of the spectrum, we hear both bragging and whining. It wasn't long ago that the chest-thumping President Obama was boasting that terrorists were "on the run." Now, he feels he is trapped in a "sort-of" war because of decisions made over a decade ago. The troop withdrawal way "not his decision," yet he never tires of reminding us that he is the commander in chief.
So which is it? Does Mr. Obama make the decisions, or is he the victim of previous decisions? It's a wearying pastime, waiting for President Obama to take responsibility for anything that has occurred at home or abroad during the past six years. With two-plus years to go in the president's second term, there is most likely a mountain of excuses yet to be climbed.
