'Knock It Off' on Health Care: Firing Line

When leaders admit mistakes, they take a short-term hit, but they often are successful over the long term. Starting with a clean sheet of paper, a leader can debrief what led to the situation and improve things going forward.

There are some on the left who want to press forward with this unsafe situation no matter what, and they'll lose some large aircraft in the process. Sens. Harry Reid (D., Nev.) and Christopher Dodd (D., Conn.) are running out of fuel in their home states and will most likely flame out by Election Day. There are some on the right in this exercise who want the fight to continue without calling "Knock it off!" so they can capitalize on the loss. This will be seen for what it is, and kicking someone when they're down isn't viewed as fighting fair. You don't shoot a guy when he's hanging in his parachute.

At the end of the day, red and blue aircraft in our military are on the same team and want to win together. We get in a room after the exercise and debrief what went right, what went wrong and how we're going to get better as a result of the mission. We shake hands and press forward.

Firing line: The health care/health insurance debate needs to focus on targeted problems and not the entire system. President Obama needs to use his charisma and goodwill, both fading rapidly, to press the reset button to "start." By calling "Knock it off!" tomorrow he will prevent things from getting too far out of control and display the ultimate trait of a good leader: the ability to say "I messed up."