Personally I hate the idea that politicians should be expected to get things right the first time. No one ever does that. What’s important is evidence that a politician has the ability to keep his mind open to the relevant facts and think them through.

It’s a little known statistic that the two major capital ship encounters of World War 2 (Hood vs Bismarck and Washington vs Kirishima) were both settled in about 5 minutes. In the USS Washington’s case it came down to the Captain making the snap decision to “take her left” past a US destroyer burning ahead of him. That put the flames of the wreck between Washington and Kirishima, rendering the US battleship invisible. Kirishima never saw Washington until it pumped 9×16″ and 40×5″ into it.

That capacity to take in the facts, understand changed conditions and possess the decisiveness to act is all one can expect of a commander because things can be over in five minutes. Personally I don’t give a hoot whether Obama foresaw the future, though it helps if you can. I do care about whether he can acknowledge the present when it is staring him in the face. Unless he can do that, when the Day comes he might not be able to say ‘take her left’ when everything depends on it.