In a previous post, I argued that Obama is a good, but not great, president. Nonetheless, the argument for greatness benefits from comparisons to W: undoubtedly the worst president of all time. One of Obama's greatest strengths: an agile and flexible mind, looks even better when compared to W's shrewd strategery employed in service of immutable goals that W. literally claimed to be communicated to him by God.
Kevin Drum sums up how the ongoing Syria situation reveals a side of "great" Obama:
No, it's not the way he planned it, but the best war plans seldom survive contact with reality, and the mark of a good commander is recognizing that and figuring out to react. It may not be pretty to watch it unfold in public in real time, but it's nonetheless the mark of a confident and effective commander-in-chief. It's about time we had one.
Update: Steven Benen has a good collection of the Obama mind changing issue: Victory has a thousand parents, but defeat is an orphan
http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35198/f/665158/s/31310593/l/0Lmaddowblog0Bmsnbc0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A90C130C20A47630A60Evictory0Ehas0Ea0Ethousand0Eparents0Ebut0Edefeat0Eis0Ean0Eorphan0Dlite/story01.htm