WAKE UP, MR. PRESIDENT - AT 11:37 A.M. ET:  I don't know about you, but I see this as a mild rebuke to the president of the United States, from his own secretary of defense:

ABOARD A U.S. MILITARY AIRCRAFT (Reuters) - The United States cannot wait for problems surrounding the legitimacy of the Afghan government to be resolved before making a decision on troops, U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said.

Gates, speaking to reporters on board a plane traveling to Tokyo, described the situation in Afghanistan as an evolutionary process that would not improve dramatically overnight, regardless of what course is taken following the country's flawed August election.

"I see this as a process, not something that's going to happen all of the sudden," Gates said.

"I believe that the president will have to make his decisions in the context of that evolutionary process."

COMMENT:  In other words, get off the dime and start doing the job for which you were elected.

October 20, 2009