More Than a Résumé

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/09/more-than-a-resume/?ref=opinion

More Than a Résumé
By TIMOTHY EGAN


You must remember this: “He worked as a community organizer.”

Rudolph Giuliani paused to choke on the words in his speech at the 2008 Republican convention, followed by a gasp, waves of laughter and more ridicule.

It became a punch line, the part of Barack Obama’s résumé that had him working with Roman Catholic parishes on Chicago’s South Side to help the unemployed. The kicker was delivered by Sarah Palin when she touted her own credentials. “I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer except that you have actual responsibilities.”

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Turns out, having a community organizer in the White House Situation Room was not a bad thing. Perhaps better than a senator who was afraid to offend an ally. And surely better than a governor who couldn’t even finish her one job with actual responsibilities. Among other things, the most critical 40 minutes of the Obama presidency prove a point backed by history: judgment and temperament are far more important than a résumé.

snip//

There’s no telling, really, if Obama’s time trying to help people with rental leases and job applications did him any good in the hunt for Bin Laden. As president, he has shown himself to be a thoughtful ditherer, someone who encourages opposing views, even when others are clamoring for him to Do Something Now! In this case, it was nine months of containing the biggest secret in the world that ended with one of “the longest 40 minutes of my life,” an operation he thought had only a 55 percent chance of succeeding.

But the man who walked out of the Situation Room with the words “We got him” showed that he had learned, somewhere, that patience can pay off. No doubt, those many thankless days with the South Side poor were instructive.

patient as the day is long. Sometimes it makes people angry and/or puzzled, but more and more people are learning to trust him-he knows what he's doing.

several months when I thought he was going to go along with the Republicans on SS/Medicare. I see now that he held his cards close to his vest, giving the Republicans enough time to get out their disgusting message before he impressively slammed them publicly. It was an effective, classy way to show the people how disgusting the Republicans are. He did it with a positive message, that he would not break the backs of the most vulnerable, like the Republicans want to do.

I think he's going to end the Afghanistan war, too; what better time than now to do it?