You don't follow through, you're through.
It's true.
You don't do what you say, let's just say, after a while, folks stop believing what you say.
I think that's why the president's having trouble in the polls.
Not because of what he has said. After all, he says all the right things.
But because of his follow-up. He does none of those things.
Don't get me wrong. The veterans administration's troubles have been decades in the making.
Republican and Democratic presidents have given it short shrift.
But this president made a big campaign issue out of it. And vowed to change it, and fix it.
He didn't. Again, that's not all on him. But it continues a remarkable pattern by him.
Pick a scandal. Any scandal.
The president says he's going to get to the bottom of it, but never does.
Vows to hold agents at the IRS accountable for targeting, but hasn't yet.
Promises people they can keep their doctor, even though many can't.
Vows to correct that, even though many still can't.
Says everyone will have insurance, even though 30 million still won't.
Claims it'll all be worth it because healthcare will improve, even though it still hasn't.
The line in the sand for a Syrian dictator that still did whatever he wanted.
The warning to a Russian leader that continues to do whatever he wishes.
A pathetic Pavlovian response to promises all too routinely broken.
And for Americans themselves, sounding more like a broken record.
Saying he's mad as hell about abuses at the VA, then flying off to a fundraiser the next day.
Like so many days.
It gets old and it gets tiresome.
It reinforces a notion of a leader who might be all talk and no action.
Like the boss who promises to turn around his company but doesn't.
Or correct a morale problem but can't.
Eventually that boss loses his job.
In government, it's not quite so simple and not quite so fast.
But that doesn't mean public shareholders of government don't eventually demand accountability.
They do. Just later at the polls.
If not for the guy screwing up in office.
The party he took with him to that office.
Then it's no longer about follow-through.
It's about voters saying, you're through.
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox