Obama’s Decision-Making

Complete 5 pages APA formatted article: Obama’s Decision-Making. Political scientists who keenly study presidential decision-making techniques have ended up considering numerous factors as central to understanding White House organization and the process. the extent of multiple advocacies, the extent of centralization, and the application of honest brokers in managing advice to the president. This article has poured much light in examining President Obama’s decision-making technique with respect to the above-mentioned factors and has presented several scenarios in illustrating them. detainee policy, economic policy, and decision making in the Afghanistan war.

On most occasions, presidents have dealt with the problems of obtaining useful information and advice in a number of ways. To be certain that they get advice from a wide perspective instead of the necessarily limited perspective of their cabinet secretaries who happen to be advocates for only their departments, presidents have widened their White House staff members and used them as their ground advisors. For the purpose of ensuring that they do not make hasty decisions and ignore vital considerations, other presidents have insisted on an orderly deliberation process that entails opposing points of view and various policy choices before concluding on crucial decisions. Some have gone ahead to appoint “honest brokers” to their part of the staff to certify that no imperative perspective from their Cabinet secretaries or staffers will go unattended. Mr. Barrack Obama continued to centralize policy advice in the White House and maintained multiple advocacies in the deliberation of policies. However, the President did not appoint honest brokers but opted to control policymaking details on his own.

The Cuban Missile Crisis reveals how President J.F Kennedy resisted the pressure from almost all his advisors, including his blood brother Robert, to wipe out a Soviet ruled surface air missile site after it happens to shoot down an American reconnaissance plane. It seems that J.F Kennedy is the only person in the room who fully contemplates the corollaries of a U.S military attack on Cuba (Stuckey 554).