Good Advice From Bob Woodward

Bob Woodward has an great article up in the Washington Post called, "10 Take Aways From the Bush Years." Unlike the BDS crowd, Woodward's criticisms of Bush have generally been harsh but fair.  In this article he offers ten lessons for the new president, based on Bush's failures. Most of his points should be required reading for any world leader, not just Obama.  For example, a couple of them deal with making sure your key advisors form a team, are all following the same gameplan, and that administration policy is clear and decisive.  This was one of Bush's worst failings.  As Woodward says,

Bush wound up with a team of back-stabbers with long-running, poisonous disagreements about foreign policy fundamentals.

A couple of other points essentially warn against the dangers of relying on yes-men and being unwilling to apply or allow healthy skepticism to your own policies. The entire article is excellent. I read through it nodding my head the whole way at how well Woodward nailed some of the key failings of the Bush presidency.