I don't think I'd want to visit, much less live in, the parallel universe that hosts a President. That's the universe where if he makes the wrong call on fiscal policy, a million more people lose their jobs, or the wrong judgment about an enemy, and thousands lose their lives. Presidents rise or fall according to how they handle a crisis — an invasion, a depression, a massive oil spill — but they seldom get credit for the crisis they prevent, especially since they can't prove it would have happened in the first place. As Barack Obama weighs his options in Afghanistan or where and how hard to shock the economy in hopes of finding a pulse, as he watches poll numbers slip and confidence slide and 7 in 10 people say his economic rescue attempt has made no difference, there's a shadow President over in the alternative reality who is wondering, Just where would we be now had I not administered CPR when I walked in the door?

Scratch a President's skin and you'll find someone who is nearly as proud of what doesn't happen as what does. Sometimes the biggest part of the job is foreseeing and forestalling, or keeping bad things from being worse; not much in the way of credit for that, but a lot of time spent and sleep lost. When the weight of office is finally off their shoulders, this is often what former Presidents remember. Though eternally popular personally, Eisenhower endured the condescension of some in even his party who dismissed him as the custodial President of a sedated country. He knew otherwise: knew how many times in the course of his two terms his advisers urged him to dispatch the Marines, whether to Vietnam, Suez, Hungary, Quemoy and Matsu — advice he resolutely resisted in his hunt for a better way. "The United States never lost a soldier or a foot of ground in my Administration," he argued in retirement. "We kept the peace. People asked how it happened. By God, it didn't just happen, I'll tell you that." (See pictures of Obama's first year in the White House.)

In a President's parallel universe, even normal calculations collapse under pressure. Risk is supposed to equal probability times consequences. Do I dare leave home without an umbrella? There's a less than even chance it will rain, the umbrella is heavy, it doesn't really matter if I end up getting wet, so I leave it at home. But now imagine you are in the White House, weighing the risk of confronting your enemy over Cuba or Vietnam, wondering if that would unleash a nuclear holocaust that would mean the end of civilization as we know it. Now the math goes out the window: no risk could be worth an infinitely bad outcome. But Presidents can't think that way, or they would be held hostage by fear. So they have to pick their way toward solutions, commuting back and forth to the alternative reality where they glimpse what could happen if things don't go as planned.

Thus did Lyndon Johnson, retired to his ranch in Texas, brush back his aide and later biographer Doris Kearns Goodwin when she suggested there might have been some other road to peace in Southeast Asia. "I will not let you take me backward in time in Vietnam," he growled. "Fifty thousand American boys are dead. Nothing we can say will change that fact. Your idea that I could have chosen otherwise rests upon complete ignorance. For if I had chosen otherwise, I would have been responsible for starting World War III." He knew the price he was paying, personally and politically, including the cost to the Great Society vision he cherished. "Do you know what it's like to feel responsible for the deaths of men you love? Well, all that horror was acceptable if it prevented the far worse horror of World War III. For that would have meant the end of everything we know." (See if Obama's immigration push is hurting Democrats.)

Every President lives with his own version of this. Gerald Ford's aides sat mute as he explained his plan to pardon Richard Nixon and spare the country prolonged agony. "The President's logic was unassailable," one adviser recalled, "yet I felt as if I was watching someone commit hara-kiri." George W. Bush lives with the legacy of Abu Ghraib and waterboarding and the costs of making "hard calls" but left office able to say, we were not successfully attacked a second time on my watch, and who in the fall of 2001 would have predicted that?

This may be one reason Bush has said many times that President Obama "deserves my silence." Every President will have his critics, but in the modern age, they seldom include his predecessors. All Presidents are fellow travelers in the parallel universe, where the terrain of regret looks very different and where there is hardly ever such thing as a perfect outcome.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2004108,00.html#ixzz0v71NQ9R2

Good read.

Excellent point to all those armchair incumbents in our country who would buckle under the first day pressure of the presidency. Of course, you couldn't get them to admit it though.

More BS defense on behalf of a socialist.

I did not know that Time is a socialist??

It is a good read for those who know different.

so what? ya if he does nothing, nothing happens. that was Jimmy Carter's forte too. but Mr. Obama has indeed taken action. he has a very interesting track record come november

I got to agree. Lyndon Johnson was a poor president. he just floated along while America's economy hung precariously on a need to stroke a struggling industrial base that was lagging from the loss of the Korean War going into a stale mate. The only thing Nixon was guilty of was getting caught doing what SO many other presidents did before him.

No Obama did more than inherit a problem, He tossed gasoline into a raging fire is what he did. On top of that his leadership leaves a lot to be desired.

Even Time Magazine has a liberal lean to it. Some of their writers are very strongly "liberal" and for some reason Socialists love to parasitize the liberal party and ride along acting like they are part of the liberal way when instead they corrupt it from within so that their agenda sounds "Democratic."

A presidents value to us is based on their leadership and their accomplishments and so far his detrimental accomplishments FAR outweigh the beneficial ones not matter what any magazine writer wants to say!

By 2012 the real impact of Obama's actions will begin to be felt but by 2014 we will know the full extent of the damage.

Then it will be interesting to compare all the BS written praising Obama and his administration vs. what the real aftermath is reviewed.

It doesn't even praise Obama.

PS. Johnson retired to his ranch becasue his administration was so much of a train wreck bad press followed him everywhere for years after his presidency.

It does go round and round about almost next to nothing but sure hints at what Obama is going through.

So many experts out there acting like they can get in people's heads.

But hey, I am one of those experts too!



There also is an unspoken rule among the presidency you speak no ill of a former president nor speak ill of the new president. Bush was being smart.

Ronald Regan inherited a total cluster fuque thanks to Carter's bungling and amazingly right after (THE DAY AFTER IF I REMEMBER PROPERLY) the Iranians gave up the hostages they took while Carter was president and he let the Navy completely fuque up the one and only supposed rescue attempt while Ross Perot hired mercenaries and retried his people! Too bad he sissied out when he had a chance at being the first independent candidate to win.

I cannot buy the whole concept of the President's Parallel universe. Obama is a president I can say DOES live in a parallel universe where money is just printed as they need it so he can give it all away to social programs.

All I sen in this article was a cyclical argument that went nowhere other than to illustrate some lofty thinking about the president's place in our society. it almost compliments bad thinking and poor planning on behalf of failed leaders.

Why is it necessary to pardon Obama when the impact of his failures has yet to be felt in reality? Hell, people were on a teat over Watergate for YEARS after the fact.

What we have is a illusionist division between our leadership and the people just like a king in his castle.

Besides the real culprit in all of this mess are all these poor people wanting hand outs and free everything from the government voting for all the BS our politicians know is bad for the country just to get votes for themselves!

Now granted again it does not mention Obama specifically but does this justify mismanagement, poor decision making, and fostering more corruption?

Yep...



He sure is Big Money's Beyatch!

I guess some people read a different article than I posted.

It speaks of giving all presidents the credit for stopping crisis before it hit.

You know like giving Bush credit for stopping further attacks after 9/11.

How do we know if the economy wouldn't be worse had Obama not acted? There is no way to prove something like that.

Economists have said he did the right things but were they right or not?

People piss on Ronald Regan's shoes all of the time but they seem to forget he was dealing with Jimmy Carter's screw ups. There has yet to be any real Crisis any President ever prevented. In all reality things really got crappy since Jimmy Carter. Our economy danced strangely after WWII and the sudden drop in War Production had its impacts but when Carter introduced all his Social hand outs our economy began to get a wobble to it.
Regan Stabilized it a little and Bush Sr. for as much of a Rat Bastard as he was did manage to keep things sort of stable. Now as far as all this war BS Bush Sr. Set that stage! But war since Korea has never been fought to win. What Bush Sr was guilty of was leaving unfinished business behind in Desert Shield. Bush Jr dragged us into Desert Storm and he was guilty of not having an exit strategy.
Clinton was the one who dug a dagger into America's back but it was Obama who hit it with a hammer to drive it all the way through us. These two men damaged this country in a number of ways but I don't want to get too much in to it.

Ultimately who is guilty of the problems this nation is facing?

Look around you when you are on the street! That is who fuqued it all up! We let Congress pull their BS!
Promise a free hand out and the voters are jumping to let them do it without regard to where the money comes from like they just can print it as they see fit!

Like the article said. How will we know what crisis was avoided for any of the presidents since we cannot go into an alternate universe to see what would have happened if they didn't do what they did.

and just the opposite.. what crises are happening because of their actions or inactions?

So I guess nobody knows anything then?

If I did I would surely tell everyone.
Then again would it matter?

A massive demonstration of the power of 'What if ... ?' that goes nowhere and accomplishes nothing ... typical Leftist / Progressive / Socialist agitprop ...

Are you leftist, progressive and socialist because you know so much about them?

I sure didn't know this about them.