Courage to do the unexpected a valuable quality in a president

WASHINGTON — The other day, President Barack Obama defied environmentalists by giving permission for new oil and gas drilling off U.S. coasts, after a decades-long moratorium. It was a thrilling moment.

Not because drilling is necessarily a good thing — it can be good or bad, depending on where it's done, why it's done, if jobs are created and what environmental controls are in place. And it's often been bad.

No, Obama's decision was a good thing because it shows Obama has an unpredictable streak. As a candidate, he opposed drilling off U.S. coasts. A year ago, he blocked plans put in place at the last minute by the Bush administration to permit offshore drilling and to open the national outer continental shelf for drilling.

If more politicians were unpredictable, this would be a better democracy. There would be less rancorous partisanship and more people would debate the issues on their merits rather than engaging in knee-jerk conservatism or liberalism. Lobbyists might have a harder time buying votes.

President George H.W. Bush lost the White House when he decided that his famous "read my lips, no new taxes" pledge was no longer serving the country well.

President Ronald Reagan went against GOP theology when he decided it was time to make peace with the Soviet Union.

President Bill Clinton decided he had to make a stand for welfare reform, even though his own wife begged him not to do it, saying it was a mistake.

President Richard Nixon defied his party ideology by overseeing the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency and by going to China.

Even the nation's first beloved president, George Washington, brought on a national torrent of anger against himself — the possibilities of impeachment and even death were raised — by negotiating a secret treaty to avert a second war with Great Britain during his presidency, a war the fledgling new republic could not have won.

It's interesting that as presidents adjust to office, they are filled with curiosity about their predecessors and how they handled their challenges and political ups-and-downs.

We don't yet know how the new health care legislation will play out, but a reinvigorated, newly emboldened Obama is already trying to figure out how to get his other objectives passed.