By Kelly Young

Guest Columnist



Tenacity is a character trait I can admire in political candidates. It demonstrates the depth of conviction

they hold for their beliefs, and shows that they are unafraid to persevere in the face of adversity.

I would even go so far as to vote for a person who I view as stubborn — as long as that obstinacy is channeled in a beneficial way and is used to profit the people.

But I draw the line at thick-headedness. The ability to learn from previous mistakes and to come back to the problem-solving table all the wiser because of that failure is an absolute requisite for a good leader.

During his first year in office, President Barack Obama has revealed that his learning curve is virtually nonexistent, as he has been unremitting in his mission to repeat the same mistakes over and over and over again while apparently gleaning nothing useful in the process. If at first you don’t succeed ... grab a bigger hammer and just keep whacking away.

Here’s a little quiz for you; play along at home and see if your brain is more teachable than the president’s. In an embarrassing instance of vetting gone wrong, your selection for Secretary of the Commerce Department (Bill Richardson) has already withdrawn due to an influence peddling investigation when it is revealed that your appointee for Secretary of Health and Human Services (Tom Daschle) is a tax evader. Do you?

A. Acknowledge the mistake, withdraw him from consideration, appoint a replacement who hasn’t recently tried to steal from the country and reform your appointment process so that in the future criminals aren’t “accidentally” considered for positions within the administration.

B. Downplay his misdeeds, learn nothing from the ordeal and continue on with business as usual.

I don’t know about you, but I went with option A. It just seemed like the more responsible and ethical course of action. What did Obama do? During the next 36 days, after waiting for Daschle to step down, the president then appointed Nancy Killefer, Hilda Solis, Timothy Geithner and Ron Kirk — each accomplished tax thieves themselves — to positions within his administration.

Rather than learn from his mistake, Obama chose to abuse his majority in Congress to grease the confirmation process, getting Geithner, Solis and Kirk’s name placards on their new doors before the biased media even had the opportunity to ignore the scandal properly. And as a result, thoughtful Americans were forced to wonder if Obama even knew enough honest people to fill out his cabinet.

On April 1, 2009, during a trip abroad, the president greeted King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia with a deep bow, and the appropriateness of that gesture was a hotly debated topic on the news channels back home for weeks. Regardless of how you personally feel about the president of the United States showing such deference to a brutal Islamic monarch, there can be no question that the politically prudent thing to do would be to avoid such situations in the future.

So when approaching the emperor of Japan a few months later under similar circumstances, would you?

A. Remember the political heartache your last bow caused you, decide the potential costs (angering/annoying your constituents and reinforcing your timid reputation on the world stage) outweigh the potential gains (absolutely nothing other than having the opportunity to check your shoe laces), shake the man’s hand from a position of power and take a presidential decorum class just as soon as you get home.

B. Bow just as deeply or maybe even deeper than last time, ignite a second political firestorm over the same, easily avoidable issue, learn nothing from the ordeal and continue on with business as usual.

Yep, you guessed it. Obama again opted for plan B. I don’t know, maybe his shoes were untied? For a politician who is in such control of his image and is so honed-in on the media’s treatment of that image, why can’t he seem to learn from his own gaffes?

It’s a very important question for a spend-happy president who, after forcing through the fruitless $787-billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act during his first full month in office and attempting to ram home an exorbitant and deficit-gorging healthcare overhaul, is now considering using even more of our tax money on another round of “stimulus.”

But with our nation’s debt already at record levels, the president surely wouldn’t repeat the blunders of the past by blindly throwing more money at the economy, right? History certainly indicates that that is all he knows how to do. Obama’s modus operandi since day one has been rampant spending – and when you’re a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

To avoid making mistakes is to do nothing — although there are certainly times when doing nothing is the appropriate course of action. I don’t expect the president to be faultless in his problem solving, but I expect him to be cognizant enough to realize when something tried time and again isn’t working.

Being willing to beat your head repeatedly against a rock in the hopes of drawing some water is not an admirable quality. And unfortunately in this instance, it’s the American people who wind up with the headache.

Albert Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results. By that definition, if the president thinks a new stimulus plan will be any more successful than his last one, he may need to trade in the White House for his very own white padded room.