It’s probably not worth refuting something written by the author of Triumph Forsaken: The Vietnam War, 1954-1965. (Though the consensus is that Carter’s failure was caused not by his policies but by the way he tried to get his policies enacted.) This, however, is true:
Biden asserted that an Obama administration would make unpopular decisions, because “if they’re popular, they’re probably not sound.” As a consequence, “You all are going to be sitting here a year from now going, ‘Oh my God, why are they there in the polls, why is the polling so down?’”
If Obama is to govern responsibly, it’s going to be a lot like the first Bloomberg administration: he’s going to have to make a lot of very unpopular decisions in the first two years in hopes that the positive effects are seen by the time re-election rolls around. A lot of people—including, I’m sure, a lot of people here—will be unhappy about these deicions, and may draw grand conclusions from this about the Democratic party and the first black president and so forth and so on. It will be worth remembering in, say, July 2009 that Biden told you all this ahead of time. If you trust Obama now, try and remember why you do, and keep on trusting him even if he makes some unpopular moves. He’ll need your trust to get through the first two years of his administration—and I don’t know about you, but I would really like to see a Democratic president succeed, and get the chance to enact some responsible policy for a change.
(via mikehudack)
This is undoubtedly true, however, a great leader will be able to explain why these unpopular decisions are the right ones and continue to earn the trust that put him/her in the position to make those decisions. I think the poll numbers should be contained (i.e., drops limited) by an honest communication with those effected. We know where it ends if the communication is limited or a farce.
