"My job is to make decisions"

by Elwood Dowd

"My job is to make decisions." That's what the President said this morning.

It was an improvement in coherence over "I'm the decider," his words from a few days ago. But it has been gnawing at me -- there's something very odd about that statement.

Most everyone has a quick summary about what their job is. "I sell houses" or "I'm a firefighter" or "I write novels." It's usually pretty evident how to judge our success based on these descriptions: if I haven't sold a house in six months, if houses are burning to the ground with people inside, if novels are late and unread -- we're not doing so good.

GWB refuses to accept any such clear accountability. I want a Management By Objective list like the one that the Leader of the Free World has given himself: Make Decisions. Not good decisions, necessarily, though we will all agree that good decisions would be frosting on the cake.
Most of us work under much more demanding standards. Sell the house or the car. Put out the fire. Fix the transmission. Fill the cavity in the tooth.

Here's a secret: so does the President. Here is the job description he signed onto:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

Mr. President -- You did not sign on to Make Decisions. You committed to protecting the Constitution, and you are not just failing -- you are actively working to undermine it.

Mr. President -- Your job is not to Make Decisions, any more than Curt Schilling's job is to "hold the baseball." Yes, he will hold the baseball and yes, you will make decisions -- but if it stops there no one will care. If he shuts out the other team, if you lead the nation to a better place, people will care.

There is not a single corporation in America that would accept a CEO who claims that his or her job is to "make decisions." Corporations will demand that the CEO knows that the job is to make things better.

You owe the American people an apology, and you owe us an honest attempt to do your real job -- or a resignation.