Emerson makes valid comments about Obama using "I" versus Clinton, Bush, and other Presidents using "we".
I don't think so.
From a leadership position, the President is taking ownership of his decisions. This isn't egocentric, nor is it a question of humility. Whereas the little sign on the desk reputedly says "the buck stops here," taking ownership of the acts and decisions of one's cabinet, administration, executive orders, and programs and policies is right and correct.
It's not an issue of credit. It's an issue of responsibility.
A commanding officer is responsible for the actions of those personnel under him who carry out his orders, or which support his program. Regardless of what actions a previous administration may have begun or carried out, the present administration was handed a political situation with which the President may or may not have agreed. None the less, the President is responsible for the policies and actions of his Administration under his supervision and direction.
For the President to accept responsibility for the direction and outcome of each operation that his office authorizes is proper. If the raid at Abbottabad had gone badly (ala Operation Eagleclaw at Desert One), his ownership of that debacle wouldn't be called egocentric. Neither should his ownership of the situation as Commander in Chief be viewed any differently.
Only a complete idiot would insinuate that by saying "I," the Commander in Chief is actually suggesting that he did everything himself. Obviously he didn't. That doesn't need to be said, because it's patently obvious. The President never stated that he did everything himself. Mr. Emerson is an intelligent individual, and far from an idiot; accordingly I very much doubt he intends to say that the President ever intimated or suggested that he did everything himself. To hint or suggest at such a thing is more than a stretch.
When Eagle Claw failed, it fell back on President Carter. Clearly he hadn't been on the mission, any more than President Obama was at Abbottabad. Never the less, President Carter owned the responsibility for the mission. The shockwaves surrounding the failure at Desert One were a seminal moment in modern special operations and lead to massive changes. At the end of the Carter Administration, President Carter was largely deemed by the public to have failed to return the Iranian hostages, and President Reagan claimed that victory...even though the return occurred only minutes into his Administration. Nobody seemed to complain then.
The fact is that like it or lump it, the sitting President at the time of the raid at Abbottabad was President Obama. It was his orders that were carried out, and it was under his direction. Nobody, least of all the President, has in any way remotely insinuated or suggested that the troops, personnel, specialists, analysts, operators, administrators, cabinet members, agents, and others involved were not a part. To suggest as much is laughable, and such a ridiculous stretch as to destroy all credibility in the statement.
No, the President didn't say "I" to take anything away from anyone. The President made a statement of ownership for which some will give him positive credit, and for which others will hate him. When a company commander tells his men that he intends to take a bridge, he doesn't mean that he intends to do it himself. He means that his men, his team, will take the bridge. As a leader, he understands that he will take ownership of the operation, for better or worse. His call, his responsibility. That's the burden of leadership. It may result in accolades from some, death threats from others, distain from some like Mr. Emerson, and indifference from others. No matter. A leader who doesn't take ownership of his actions isn't worth his weight in wet salt.
President Obama took ownership, just as he should.
