A Test for President Obama: A Wartime Commander-in-Chief
By David M. Abshire, President, Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress
http://www.thepresidency.org/storage/documents/Chattanooga_Rotary_Speech_3.4.2010.pdf
Reviewed by Francis P. Sempa, Contributing Editor

David Abshire, the President of the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, recently spoke to the Chattanooga Rotary Club in Tennessee about President Obama’s role as a wartime commander-in-chief. Abshire attempted to place Obama “in the context of our two greatest Commanders-in-Chief”—Lincoln and FDR. Abshire pointed out that unlike Lincoln (who served briefly in the Blackhawk War), Obama has no personal military experience to draw upon. Like FDR, Obama faces the twin challenges of war and economic crises, but whereas World War II helped FDR emerge from our economic downturn, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are adding to our economic woes. Abshire also worries that Obama’s focus on the Iraq and Afghan wars is causing him to neglect the challenge of China and ignore our strategic partners in the Asia-Pacific region (Japan, South Korea, Southeast Asia). Obama, opined Abshire, unlike Lincoln (who wisely put off emancipation until later in the Civil War), has tried to do too much too soon.

Abshire praised Obama for his strong national security team, including Secretary of State Clinton, Secretary of Defense Gates, CIA Director Panetta, and, most especially, National Security Advisor Jones (who Abshire compares to George Marshall). Flawed national security systems, Abshire noted, have produced failed policies such as the Bay of Pigs, the flawed Vietnam War strategy of gradual escalation, the Iranian crisis of 1979, and the current Iraq war.