Opportunity in Economic Crisis

Last Tuesday, Obama assured CNN's Anderson Cooper, "Look, the only measure of my success as president, when people look back five years from now or nine years from now, is going to be, did I get this economy fixed?"

Really?! Really?!

We are still at war, aren't we? Last time I checked there were tens of thousands of U.S. men and women stationed abroad in carrying out missions that required the use of ammunition on a regular basis.

Many of our enemies (yes, we have very real enemies) have taken notice of how distracted the U.S. is by the economic problems we are struggling with. Iran launched its first satellite, proving a new missile capability that no one should feel good about. Russia has pressured Kyrgyzstan into no longer allowing U.S. access to a key military base. Kim Jong-Il is threatening war. The piracy of heavy weapons, such as tanks, is thriving. And Afghanistan, known to historians as the "graveyard of empires" is threatening to fall apart even more (and I'm still not sure how that is possible).

The world we live in is too complex to allow us the luxury of tunnel vision on any single issue. Nor is it helpful to the current economic crisis to continually focus so much attention on bailout bills that are being sold under the pretext of pure fear. Rather than bringing all of our best efforts to bear on the economy to assure citizens that solutions are being offered, the government's floundering is further weakening confidence and exposing the unfortunate truth that Washington D.C. simply does not know how to fix this problem. Calling attention to how hard you are workign to fix an immediate problem only works if you can also routinely celebrate progress, or at least discovery. The Obama administration can do niether.

There may be an unusual amount of very critical decisions to be made, but that is what an American president must do. And if Obama does not lift his eyes from this economic crisis in the very near future he will have lost vital ground with me, our military, and our enemies. Great leaders know this. You know this. Does Obama know this?