Golfing in Martha's Vineyard

The President “gets” it. He knows how to choose good people to do the necessary work, and he delegates accordingly. To that end, the administration has had boots on the ground in Louisiana since the first clues came in that this was going to be a major disaster. They have been there, doing the work that must be done.

Before the Louisiana governor asked him to delay coming to the state this president understood the reasons behind the governor’s plea to wait a while. The people working through the various agencies arrived on scene without fanfare, without swarms of media, without disrupting traffic or rescue efforts in order to accommodate security requirements.

To put it simply, this president put the needs of the people of Louisiana above any consideration of good photo ops, and he did that by understanding that his physical presence was needed far less than that of specifically trained first responders. Obama understands, to a degree that has been unnecessary for any of his predecessors, that delaying the trip would bring as much vilification as if he’d gone earlier; he understands, because he’s had to deal with it by boxcar loads, that he’s damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t. He knows that, for a strident faction of the populace, for him there is no win. Ever. He’ll get royally reamed long before he hears any expressions of gratitude for sending the right people at the right time. And knowing all this, he still chooses to do the right thing.




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