A lesson on the Bully Pulpit...

As part of my day today, I attended a panel on the joint Chinese and Russian Exercises that transpired in late August of this year. This panel proved to be very interesting, as one of the panelists proceeded to deviate from the material he was asked to cover and instead talked about how "the USA always needs an enemy" and also talked down in regards to how President Bush's faith plays into how he governs and what he says. This deviation was enough to cause the host to chastise him.

Now I agree that there is a place for faith when it comes to governance, and I don't have a problem if that faith motivates how someone governs, but at the same time (as it says in Proverbs) "victory is attained through the wise council of many" - which is why Bush has advisors. To think that the President would appoint someone to a certain position just because that person believes as the President does - in terms of like faith - is a little overboard.

Regardless of if I agree with various promotions and appointments that the President makes, I have to believe in good faith that there are some good people that he has surrounded himself with that assist him in making those promotional and appointee decisions.

I don't believe that the panel I attended today was the correct forum for such criticism, it has its place to be sure, but this was not that place.