Barrack Herbert Walker Obama

Those with short memories will not recall the thrashing that George H.W. Bush took in the media for vacationing in Kennebunkeport during the Gulf crisis in 1990.

While troops were massing to liberate Kuwait, the Commander in Chief was seen on the nightly news casting a fishing line at his family's property in Maine.  Many parents of servicemen about to risk their lives in a faraway land were mightily annoyed at the scenes of relaxation.

In truth I think that the criticism was unfair.  A President ALWAYS has important matters to deal with and should still be able to take a vacation.  In fact, I think that the nation and the world would be better served with a President who wasn't couped up in Washington at times like that.

However, in the 24 hour news cycle that exists in the world today, perceptions matter.  Bush was damaged politically by that impression and wise political heads took care not to repeat that mistake.

In the wake of the recent attempted bombing of Northwest Airlines, it is worth asking if Obama has any experienced political advisors on his roster.  It did not create a good image to continue his vacation in Hawaii while his Homeland Security Director declared that "the system had worked."  In truth, only a failure of the detonation prevented tragedy......the system did everything possible to allow this terrorist to do his work.

It seems that the system had worked in so far as identifying the individual and placing him on a watch list.  When the terrorist father (a prominent economist) raised the alarm to the US Embassy, the information was passed along to the CIA   However the various agencies did nothing with that information and he eluded screening systems to smuggle the explosives on board.  The system did everything except its one overriding goal which is to prevent terror attacks.

This happened on Obama's watch.  It was his Homeland Security director who declared that all was fine with the system.  The agencies that failed did so on his watch.

Quite apart from the merits of the screening systems, it is important for Americans to have faith in their government to protect them.  That faith was shaken partly based on merit and partly based on the incredibly dumb ways in which the aftermath was handled.

Preventing terrorism should not be a political issue....neither Dems nor Republicans favour terrorists.  However Obama is President and he must exude more competence than he has on this matter.  The public is not being unreasonable to expect their President to appear to be handling this seriously from the start.