A Mile In Bush's Shoes

One of the translations of Confucius' oft-repeated 'Confucius say' - "I hear and I forget; I see and I remember; I do and I understand" - is: "You can't understand until you walk a mile in someone else's shoes." (Did that sentence make sense?)

President Obama now finds himself in the awkward position of asking Congress for billions in new military spending to fund the ongoing war effort. 

You'll recall that during his campaign Obama was quite vocal about his opposition to fighting terrorists in Iraq and vowed to withdraw troops almost immediately upon taking office.

Now, many from his own base are turning on Obama, calling him such things as "Bush 2.0", "more of the same", and other such criticisms.

I would assume, however, that the reason is much more simple: Obama must now deal with reality as opposed to the hypothetical. Real-life consequences of his decisions and actions are something Obama is facing for the first time in a capacity even remotely as critical as POTUS.

And while Obama is still shooting from his hip on most topics, I for one am encouraged that he appears to be taking this particular issue seriously.