Obama, in a flurry of television interviews repeatedly acknowledged that he had "screwed up" in his handling of Tom Daschle's nomination to be HHS Secretary. At a painful moment, confronted with the loss of his close ally, Daschle, Obama accepted responsibility for Daschle's withdrawal (due to his tax problems) as nomineee for HHS Secretary.
Did George Bush ever admit a mistake of any size in such a public way? No. Why, he couldn't even admit he was wrong to order the invasion of Iraq and that thousands of US soldiers and Iraqi civilians had died as a result. He could not admit he & his Administration basically invented a false rationale for the Iraq war and repeatedly engaged in a propagandist effort to link Saddam Hussein to Al Quaeda when, in fact, Al Quada was not even in Iraq until Bush's invasion led them to establish a presence there. Bush's actions on Iraq amounted to more than a mistake; they were grounds for impeachment. Yet, at the end of his presidency, he said only that he regretted no weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq.
I raise Bush to underscore the incredible change in qualities, approach and character between him and Obama after a week when Obama took a fair share of criticism and second-guessing -- some of it deserved and some of it distorted or undeserved, in my view.
The following are ten points about Obama and the coverage that I think could have received more attention or emphasis:
1) With all the analysis of Obama's stimulus package, too little emphasis has been given to the poor job House Democrats did in developing the spending plans and programs included. The Republicans effectively ripped the wasteful portions of the stimulus package day after day, but, no House Democrats - including Speaker Nancy Pelosi - emerged to provide Obama with loyal support when he needed it. To the contrary, House Democrats were largely silent and allowed the minority of Republicans to frame - and, steal - the dynamic of the public debate. The media coverage was not altered or "qualified" by the fact that Republicans were venting most of their criticism at about one percent of the package -- until Obama himself pointed that out during his TV interviews. The House members left the heaving lifting to Obama, who was distracted trying to run the country in his first days in office.
2) On a related, larger point, isn't it striking that Obama has not been served well by a number of individuals and groups who could have come through for him. a) First, he had several appointees who - it turned out - had problems with taxes or other matters - Bill Richardson, Tim Geithner, Tom Dasche & Nancy Killefer - and all could have told him of the problems that were made public later. These appointees caused unnecessary quagmires for Obama. b) Instead of responding to Obama's call for bipartisanship during the unprecedented economic crisis, most House Democrats have returned to their old partisan ways. They included many items in the stimulus bill that offered no "stimulative" effect, and, worse, seemed unrelated to economic woes. House Democrats left themselves and Obama wide open to criticism. Republicans kept citing specific wasteful spending items even though all they seemed to propose was tax cuts.
I got the impression that members of Congress "still don't get it" in terms of why Obama got elected. The public is really, really sick of Democrats and Republicans in Congress being predisposed to fight and fail to produce results; rather, they want action - now.
3) The Obama team - and House Democrats - made a large blunder by failing to develop and implement a communications strategy for explaing and "selling" the stimulus package to the public, and, press over the past ten days. They didn't seem to even have "talking points" for discussing aspects of the stimulus plan. As Obama & company were using "general" or "vague" points, Republicans kept harping on specifics - even their arguments were often out of context.
4) Obama, in two weeks, has been more open - or, as he says, "transparent" - in how he makes decisions than Bush was and other Presidents as well. The impression - from the whole team - from Obama, to Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, to others - has been that they're at least trying to keep the public and press informed about developments. At a moment of crisis - and, as a new, young President, it's wise of he and his team to have him be visible much of the time. It's reassuring. On several occasions, it's clear Obama has given similar messages to small groups in private as he or his team does to the public. That's a refreshing, incredible contrast to W.
5) On foreign policy, Obama has initiated several significant moves. a) He is reviewing the US position on Afghanistan - a topic warranting serious reconsideration. b) In his very first public remarks on the Middle East conflict, he chose include a point about the importance of getting humanitarian aid to the Palestianians. He appointed George Mitchell as special envoy and Mitchell, only days later, was meeting leaders in the Middle East. c) Obama gave his first sit-down interview to an Arabic television network and discussed issues relevant to Muslims and Arabs across the world.
6) Obama has acknowledged publicly he supports re-branding the US "war on terror" by redefining its conflicts with terrorists by referring the specific names of different terrorist groups .
7) The Obama administaration is sending signals it wants to initiate new diplomatic efforts to engage Iran. This comes at a delicate, important moment in Iran's relations with not only the US but the rest of the world - as its development of a nuclear facility gets closer to finalization.
8) Obama, the day after the bad news about Daschle, announced the Administration's tough, new policy on banning bonuses (in executive compensation) for CEOs of companies that had received money from bailouts
9) Obama, in his first 48 hours, kept his campaign pledge to close Guantanamo Bay terrorist detention center by announcing plans to do so within the next year despite an array of complications AND signed an executive order banning harsh interrogations amounting to "torture."
10) Obama established tough, new ethics rules for all those employed the White House. The rules, in some instances, seem to set such high standards that it might be hard to hire and keep people in their positions.
Yet, it's sure good to have a President who is at least is trying - so far - to get things done and follow the rules. He made a few blunders this past week, but, let's pause to recognize that, relatively speaking, he's bringing change to the White House.
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