Donaldson to Obama: Slow and Steady Wins the Race
ABC News' Sam Donaldson explores how the president can best "win the race."
Feb. 26, 2009 — -- The following is a commentary by ABC News' Sam Donaldson. Click here to view a video version of his latest essay.
Listening to President Barack Obama before Congress the other night and looking at his budget proposal now made public, I am reminded of the children's story about the tortoise and the hare. You remember, when the race starts, the hare runs away like the wind leaving the tortoise who just plods along in the dust… but, it's the tortoise who crosses the finish line first because the hare has exhausted himself and fallen by the wayside to rest in an effort to regain his strength.
President Obama is certainly off to a fast start, running like the hare in a bid to get done all the good things he wants to do, in addition to his number one priority, which is to winch us up out of the deep economic ditch we're in.
Consider: Health care reform this year; ramping up the education system; speeding up the move toward cheaper, renewable energy; remaking the entitlement programs; overhauling social security; and curing cancer among other things.
I personally agree with the president on every one of the things he says we should do to make life better and opportunity wider for Americans.
But political capital, the fuel that enables presidents to get things done amid a sea of critics on Capitol Hill and elsewhere, is like the energy both the tortoise and the hare expend in their race. It must be used in a steady, sustained and targeted way, not in a blinding flash of activity.
To put it another way, smart generals mass their forces against specific targets one by one. They do not spread them thinly against all the targets at once.
If the president is simply outlining the things that should be done eventually, that's well and good. And he should move ahead in an effort to get them done. But, to get them done he should remember how the tortoise won the race -- put one foot forward step by step. That way, you can keep going until you cross the finish line.
