Presidential Decision Making

Interviewed on "60 Minutes" about the raid on bin Laden's compound, Obama showed again that he among our most thoughtful presidents:

Kroft also noted many reports that there was disagreement within the president’s national security team about the best course of action, and asked whether it was difficult to overcome the debate. The president explained, “You know one of the things that we’ve done here is to build a team that is collegial and where everybody speaks their mind. And there’s not a lot of sniping or back-biting after the fact. And what I’ve tried to do is make sure that every time I sit down in the situation room, every one of my advisors around there knows I expect them to give me their best assessments. And so the fact that there were some who voiced doubts about this approach was invaluable, because it meant the plan was sharper, it meant that we had thought through all of our options, it meant that when I finally did make the decision, I was making it based on the very best information.”

One could certainly argue considering everybody's point of view wastes a lot of time and ultimately leads to less ambitious decisions. But after 8 years of Bush I think we have had enough rashness in US foreign policy for at least the next couple of decades, and what we need now is more caution.