This week brought two high-profile examples of what has become the president's trademark approach to leadership -- "the fierce urgency of sometime later" -- as he kicked the proverbial can down the road on Afghanistan and gay marriage. On the former, his limited drawdown plan was derided as "cautious" -- not by anti-war activists, but by a GOP presidential candidate (Jon Huntsman). More evidence that opposition to our near-ten-year incursion there has moved way beyond left and right. On the latter, Obama once again stuck with his half-step positioning, refusing to endorse the then-still-pending New York bill on same-sex marriage while lauding the fight for "change that is lasting" -- a stance that continues to place him to the right of Dick Cheney. In both cases, the president is standing on the wrong side of history -- trailing behind the growing consensus of those he presumes to lead.
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This week brought two high-profile examples of what has become the president's trademark approach to leadership -- "the fierce urgency of sometime later" -- as he kicked the proverbial can down the road on Afghanistan and gay marriage. On the former, his limited drawdown plan was derided as "cautious" -- not by anti-war activists, but by a GOP presidential candidate (Jon Huntsman). More evidence that opposition to our near-ten-year incursion there has moved way beyond left and right. On the latter, Obama once again stuck with his half-step positioning, refusing to endorse the then-still-pending New York bill on same-sex marriage while lauding the fight for "change that is lasting" -- a stance that continues to place him to the right of Dick Cheney. In both cases, the president is standing on the wrong side of history -- trailing behind the growing consensus of those he presumes to lead.

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