excellent must read: The Tragedy of the Obama Administration #p2

On election night six years ago, I wrote The Tragedy of the Bush Administration. In it, I despaired that:

"Once in a generation, the stars align for a political leader. There is this perfect moment – too often based on some enormous danger of long-lasting consequences for generations to come.

Once every half century, the perfect combination of leadership and threat, of challenge and response meet. The leader – imperfect, fallible, yet ready to rise to the occasion – grabs the brass ring.

Think Winston Churchill fighting the global threat of the Nazis, Thomas Jefferson writing the Declaration of Independence, JFK's dare to send a man to the Moon . . ."

The rest of that piece went on to lament how George W. Bush was granted that rare opportunity to grab the brass ring, to rise to the occasion — and failed miserably.

rest at http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2010/11/the-tragedy-of-the-obama-administration/