In Obama's decision-making, a wide range of influences

[elleng]

During one of his Afghan review meetings last year, President Obama surprised senior advisers by jumping into a discussion between two military officials about a new study of post-traumatic stress disorder.

The flow of information to the president is usually carefully managed, and no one in the room had briefed Obama on the data. "It's not like we'd sent him the study, but he'd clearly seen it," one adviser said. "It was telling."

What it told of was a president who persists in seeking his own information, beyond what is offered to him. His lawyerly and orderly reliance on facts and data often has created an impression that Obama is cool and detached.

It is an image his advisers and friends reject. Instead, they paint a more nuanced and at times blurred portrait of a president who is deeply moved by the struggles of average citizens who stand up at town hall meetings or write thousands of letters to the White House -- 10 of which he reads each day.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/24/AR2010012403014.html?hpid=topnews

[NYC_SKP]

1. Good Article. K and R.

From the last page:

..."The president will turn to Geithner at the beginning of a meeting and say, 'Did you check into those?' " Dunn said. When it came to loan modifications, Obama would cite everyday anecdotes to counter advisers' assertions that the problems had been fixed. When it came to letters about foreclosures, Dunn said, Obama said more than once: "I get too many of these."

The focus on Obama's dispassionate demeanor is one that frustrates his advisers, who are privy to his more emotional side.

"Part of what's painful to me is to see people describe him as cool and aloof, when he's not at all," Jarrett said. "It's just simply that he has the strength and courage to not let those emotions throw him off course." ...

:patriot:

[elleng]

2. Glad you like it, SKP.

Hope others do, too.

[greenbird]

3. Thanks for this.

I sense a man who is willing to go down in the polls to make what he believes is the right decision.

[NJmaverick]

4. This is an excellent must read article

really gives a good accounting of what is going on.

[NYC_SKP]

5. Yes, it is.

Would make a nice post in GD or GDP.

:patriot: