Any form of over-indulgence creates within the body warning signs of destruction.
The euphoria around economic booms often obscures the possibility for a bust, which explains why leaders typically miss the warning signs.
Obama, like Carter, is reacting to warning signs by seeking to split the difference between dispirited Democrats and increasingly radicalized Republicans.
The failures that you beat yourself up over are the ones where you experienced warning signs and can connect the dots backwards after the fact.
The parallels between 9/11 and Pearl Harbor are striking. In each instance there were warning signs before the attack, and in each instance our government failed to connect the dots.