Can we dock Obama’s pay?

The guy has been in a holding pattern since the beginning of his presidency, occasionally bellowing “hard to port” from the aft deck, but leaving practically all of the real decision-making to his allies in Congress, or to his various cabinet chiefs and czars. He should be introducing every speech with “I’m not really a president, but I play one on TV.”

Michael Barone, in a typically insightful article, observes that not making a decision really is making a decision (by default), whether the subject is the budget or Libya.

Voting "present" may be a responsible move for a legislator genuinely undecided about which way to go. But an executive voting "present" is choosing a course with consequences whether he likes it or not.

"The buck stops here," said the sign on the desk of the 33rd president, Harry Truman, who was quick to make decisions -- sometimes too quick. The 44th president's tendency seems to be something like the opposite.

We have elected a man as president who seems to truly hate his job. The kind thing - the charitable thing - would be to remove the source of his unhappiness in 2012.

Meanwhile, we're in the unenviable position of hoping that Obama rises to the level of Jimmy Carter.