Strong men who won’t ask directions

Ellen Goodman writes in a Sunday Boston Globe op-ed:

The words "resolute," "strong," and "steadfast" littered Madison Square Garden like posters of "Four More Years." The phrase repeated by delegate after delegate with spooky consistency was: "He does what he says he's going to do."

It didn't seem to matter what he did as much as the fact that he said he'd do it. It didn't seem to matter as much where he was leading as that he was leading. The president put it best Thursday night when he said, "Even when we don't agree, at least you know what I believe and where I stand."

How can we argue with a point that is so patently true? And yet, who could watch last week's RNC testosterone orgy without feeling queasy? Who can look back over the last three and a half years' worth of evironmental pillaging, global swagger, and disregard for the working man with anything but grave doubt?

Goodman:

My father used to describe a friend as "often wrong, but never in doubt." On the last day of the convention, Dick Cheney described his friend to a breakfast of Ohio delegates as "decisive."

"He doesn't waffle, he doesn't agonize," said the vice president. "That's exactly what we need in a president. We don't need indecision or confusion."

We don't need indecision or confusion. It's amazing they continue to try to tar Kerry with this brush, when indecision and confusion plus obfuscation are all Bush offered us these past years. How did we allow them to transform weighing the options before deciding into a liability?

Goodman:

Well, I am sure that Dick Cheney isn't asking me for directions. But guess what? It's not George Bush's decisiveness that's the problem. It's his decisions.

What we don't need most is four more years of Bush's wrongheaded certainty.