Presidents are deciders all; some better than others

WASHINGTON — That's what presidents do. They decide.

Some do it better than others, but all do it. History does the grading.

President Barack Obama, taking office with the economy crashing and two wars under way, barely knew his way around the Oval Office before he was neck-deep in critical decision-making.

As an administration official put it, Obama knows he's "firing with live bullets."

Broadly put, presidents make two kinds of decisions: those they choose and those they must.

So far, Obama has chosen to act on matters he brought ready-made to the White House, including a determination to close the Guantanamo Bay military prison, issue strong statements against torture and reverse Bush policy on embryonic stem-cell funding.

The 44th president also walked into the White House with his mind made up on undertaking a massive spending program to pull the economy from a nose dive unmatched in at least a half century. There also was his commitment to withdraw U.S. forces from Iraq.

On the economy and Iraq, however, Obama's intention to act on predetermined choices was quickly complicated by "the streams of pressure," as Ed Gillespie calls it, that bear down on all presidents. Those realities gum up chosen decisions with those that must be made — the unappetizing but necessary compromises — to govern in Washington.

"It's axiomatic that it is much easier to run for president than to be president," said Gillespie, who was a counselor to former President George W. Bush.

Deciding on how, not whether, to remove U.S. forces from Iraq, Obama administration officials said, grew out of a series of meetings. The most important came Jan. 21, his second day as president, in the super-secure "tank" at the Pentagon.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates "had committed to the president that he would hear from everybody involved and hear all the viewpoints out there. Gates was not going to shelter the president from any opinions," said a top White House official. Like others in the West Wing, this official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private meetings.

Gates, a holdover from the Bush administration, has given an uncommonly frank public assessment of the decision-making styles of both presidents. He said his new boss was "somewhat more analytical and he makes sure he hears from everybody in the room on an issue. And if they don't speak up, he calls on them."