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>>Jack Ryan as president might actually be personally involved in the search for Bin Laden but Bush????? Actually finding him is not his job. His job is to select the team, give them direction, make sure they have the resources they need, and then get the heck out of their way (sounds kind of like the ideal project manager for a software development effort).
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>>If the team he set up to conduct the search was distracted by the election process, or need a substantial amount of presidential oversight, or don't have access to the resources they need because he didn't have time and nobody else had the authority, then I submit that he did a very poor job in the first place.
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>>Assuming Bush did it right at the beginning, the election being over should have zero impact on the hunt for Bin Laden. We may get him shortly, but it will as a result of the continuing effort of a lot of capable people --- not because Bush is now more focused.
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>Duh, you mean the president hasn't been out looking for Bin Laden? The distraction has been that he hasn't had the face time with the people who are at the helm on those operations. Now that the election is over, he will have the time to hold those WEEKLY meetings with the people who are in direct control of the operations and he can decide if they are going in the right direction, or if he needs to put someone else in there. Any fool knows the president isn't out hunting terrorists! Give me a break.


President Bush has neither the technical competence nor field experience to directly manage the hunt for Bin Laden. After all this time if he needs WEEKLY meetings to determine if he has the right people in place, then he hasn't been exercising the proper oversight -- regardless of the distraction of the campaign. His job is to assign tasks, set priority, provide resources, and get out of the way and let those with the technical competence and experience do their jobs. If his enhanced focus suddenly improves the performance of his team, then I repeat, he did a poor job setting up that team.

As much as I dislike this president, I don't hold the failure to find Bin Laden against him. Even without Iraq, I strongly doubt we'ld have gotten him by now. The task is far harder than most of his detractors will admit. I don't think a higher priority would have led to any greater success.

But to contend that his lack of distractions will improve the efforts of his team just doesn't make sense to me. Again I repeat, We may get him shortly, but it will as a result of the continuing effort of a lot of capable people --- not because Bush is now more focused.