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underpants

(186,431 posts)
Mon Mar 30, 2020, 05:58 AM Mar 2020

Anyone remember "leading from behind"?

Trump puts 'leading from behind' in a bizarre new light

Trump says he's "a war-time president," but he also sees 50 commanders in chief scrambling on their own, while he "looks from behind."

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/trump-puts-leading-behind-bizarre-new-light-n1170481

It's been nearly a decade since the New Yorker ran a lengthy piece on the Obama administration's policy toward the Arab Spring, which quoted in passing an unnamed adviser saying the White House preferred "leading from behind" in Libya. The Democratic president never actually used or endorsed the phrase -- he actually said the opposite -- but for Barack Obama's critics, the phrase became a rhetorical staple.

It came to mind yesterday listening to Donald Trump talk about his expectations that state and local governments would take the lead on addressing the coronavirus crisis. Referring to the allocation of resources and equipment, the president said at a White House briefing:

"Again, the state has to be doing this kind of a thing also. We're sort of a, we look from behind a little bit and we look at how are they doing, and if they need help, we do it. But it's their first responsibility."

It's among the bewildering postures the president has embraced as the crisis has intensified. On the one hand, Trump, pointing to the pandemic, has declared himself to be "a war-time president." On the other hand, Trump apparently envisions a governing model in which 50 commanders in chief scramble on their own, while he and his team "look from behind

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