I want a President, not a micro-manager

Excuse for a minute while I make a martial reference.

I've been reading a history of the Allied campaign against the Germans in Italy during World War II. It's really a history of how the "good guys" won despite making some incredible mistakes that cost many thousands of lives. Time and again, some of the best American and British military thinkers brewed up beautifully conceived plans that almost always aborted shortly after being launched. The reason usually revolved around leaders to focused not taking into account the fact that plans have to be flexible. There are too many variables--the enemy, the weather, old fashioned accidents, disease--to depend solely on The Plan, no matter how well written and practiced.

So that's why I disagree with the folks who believe Clinton's plan-centric, micro-management approach makes her a better choice for President. They accuse Obama of being all flowery rhetoric with no substance. They embrace the Clinton blueprint, nicely laid out and inhabited with happy Democrats.

Clinton's got plans--can't disagree there. She's got lots of plans and policies and position statements, for every possible issue. And she love's to talk about them, ad nauseum.

But, really, I'm surprised any student of history goes for this kind of thing. One of the themes of this year's election is that many--or most--of us are sick of the unilateral demagoguery that's come to define American politics. We all yell at each other and demand that we get our way and that if you disagree you're obviously an idiot who kicks his dog and eats soup with a fork.

It seems to me that taking Clinton's approach is just a path to the same old thing, the same thing that's been the calling card of the Bush administration and the Clintons before that.

I was talking to somebody the other day who said they felt like Obama is the one candidate that can heal the social rift--the polarization of left and right--that has ripped our nation since the Vietnam War. That's not going to happen with plans and policies and position statements. Sure, I expect he will have goals, a place where he wants to take our country. But why should we expect one person among 300 million to know exactly the right path to that path. Isn't that why we have a our system of representative government? Isn't that why we expect our elected leaders, at every level of government, to engage in the "advise and consent" process?

Clinton's got her plans and she's ready to storm the White House and nation and the world, disposing of anyone that gets in her way.

But I think there's another way, one that acknowledges that the world is complex and unexpected and that everyone deserves to be part of the journey. That's why I'm going to vote for Barack Obama.