Now They Are Worried About Obama’s Competence?
By Anita Finlay ("Ani") on March 16, 2009 at 6:50 PM in Barack Obama, Current Affairs, Hillary Clinton, Stimulus Plan
Where were all these self righteous boobs before? What were they thinking? Were they so dazzled by Obama’s smile that they took leave of their senses?
Michael Goodwin’s Sunday editorial in the NY Daily News sums it up quite nicely: More than a bad day: Worries grow that Barack Obama & Co. have a competence problem:
Not long ago, after a string of especially bad days for the Obama administration, a veteran Democratic pol approached me with a pained look on his face and asked, “Do you think they know what they’re doing?”
The question caught me off guard because the man is a well-known Obama supporter. As we talked, I quickly realized his asking suggested his own considerable doubts.
Two months into the Obama Presidency, a staunch supporter is already having doubts? Well, hey, join the club. I had my doubts 15 months ago, which is why I chose not to vote for him, either in the primary or the general election. David Broder’s article in WaPo aptly entitled End of the Honeymoon makes quite clear that journalists are losing the need to wax rapturous about Obama.
Hey, America, don’t say we didn’t warn you. And Goodwin states:
Yes, it’s early, but an eerily familiar feeling is spreading across party lines and seeping into the national conversation. It’s a nagging doubt about the competency of the White House.
President Bush had similarly been tagged with the “I-word”. I for incompetent. Justifiably so, after the horrible bungling of Iraq in the four years before the surge and the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina, to name but two egregious examples.
The tag of incompetence is powerful precisely because it is a nondenominational rebuke, even when it yields a partisan result. It became the strongest argument against the GOP hammerlock on Washington and, over two elections, gave Democrats their turn at total control.
But already feelings of doubt are rising again. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid were never held in high regard, so doubts about their motives and abilities are not surprising.
What matters more is the growing concern about Obama and his team. The longest campaign in presidential history is being followed by a very short honeymoon.
Polls show that most people like Obama, but they increasingly don’t like his policies…
I am mortified by the Democratic Party’s refusal to apply logic to their choice of a candidate last year, and the press’ similar refusal to vet an inexperienced, shape-shifting man all the while beating up a competent woman, Hillary Clinton. Perhaps the DNC’s actions were motiviated by dollar signs and the idea that the youth vote would build the party for years to come. Those hopes will be dashed quickly, however, if this man cannot deliver.
Believe it or not, this is not even meant as a criticism against President Obama — but logically, how can any intelligent person assume that at one of the most difficult times in our history, with a crashing economy at home, and two wars abroad, that someone who’s resume is pitifully light in legislative experience, who has no governing or executive experience would have any clue how to lead us out of the mess we are in. It would be terribly unfair to expect him to do so.
Likewise, it was terribly unfair of Obama and his Machiavellian campaign manager, David Axelrod, to foist him upon the American people before he was ready to lead. Arrogance will not get us there either. Goodwin continues:
None other than Warren Buffet, an Obama supporter, has called the administration’s message on the economy “muddled.” Even China says it is worried about its investments in American Treasury bonds. Ouch.
Much of the blame falls on Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, whose appalling tax problems softened the ground under him before he took office. After his initial fumbling presentations, he became a butt of jokes on “Saturday Night Live,” not a sustainable image for the point man in a recession. And still the market waits for his answer to the banks’ toxic assets.
It’s also notable that four people lined up for top jobs under Geithner have withdrawn, leaving one British official to complain that there is nobody to talk to at the Treasury Department. Perhaps it was a bid to combat the Geithner blues that led Larry Summers, Obama’s top economic adviser, to make an unusual appearance Friday in which he defended the spending plans everyone is so worried about.
Yet the doubts aren’t all about Geithner, and they were reinforced by the bizarre nomination and withdrawal of Chas Freeman as a top intelligence official. It’s hard to know which explanation is worse: that the White House didn’t know of Freeman’s intemperate criticism of Israel and his praise of China’s massacre at Tiananmen Square, or that it didn’t care. Good riddance to him. But what of those who picked him?
What of those who picked him, indeed? Is this the same administration responsible for the dismissive treatment of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his wife upon their visit here – cancelling the joint press conference, reducing the reference to the “special friendship” between our two countries to a “special partnership,” saying they are just one of 190 countries, the gift gaffes, returning the bust of Churchill? More careless, callous frat-boy tactics. This will not do. We need our friends now more than ever. And we need their good will.
Goodwin nails it:
Which brings us to the heart of the matter: the doubts about Obama himself. His famous eloquence is wearing thin through daily exposure and because his actions are often disconnected from his words. His lack of administrative experience is showing.
Governing isn’t speeches. Pretty speeches will not move us forward. Ironic though, because I remember having a very pleasant conversation with a thirty-something male supporter of his last fall, a week before the November election. He was so inspired by Barack Obama’s speeches, he said – “I’d do anything for him.” That’s great. But the real question I wanted to ask is: “What will Obama do for you?” Or, more important, “what will he help you to do for yourself?”
His promises and policies contradict each other often enough that evidence of hypocrisy is ceasing to be news. Remember the pledges about bipartisanship and high ethics? They’re so last year.
Goodwin is correct. President Obama did more than make ridiculous promises on the campaign trail, he totally misrepresented from which end of the political spectrum he would govern. He is looking and acting, if not sounding, more like Bush every day:
…Last week, Obama brazenly gave a speech about earmark reform just after he quietly signed a $410 billion spending bill that had about 9,000 earmarks in it. He denounced Bush’s habit of disregarding pieces of laws he didn’t like, so-called signing statements, then issued one himself.
And in an absolute jaw-dropper, he told business leaders, “I don’t like the idea of spending more government money, nor am I interested in expanding government’s role.”
No wonder Americans are confused. Our President is, too.
I certainly do not expect miracles, but those in government who debate his competence now should be ashamed of themselves – not for their criticism, but for being so late to the party. This criticism should have been leveled from all sides a year ago, so that the woman who had “apprenticed” in the White House for eight years, become a successful two term Senator with a centrist foreign policy, bold, progressive domestic policies, and certainly a better health plan, could have had a shot at being our President.
I can assure you, the Gordon Brown disaster would not have happened. This is not a woman who would be flip flopping on signing statements or stem cell research either. And as she was one of the first to complain about the sub prime mortgage scandal years ago, she would have the good sense to realize that you cannot pass an ambitious agenda all at once. First stabilize the markets and the housing sector, then start working the rest. Methodically. One step at a time.
By trying to please everyone all at once, I worry that the current administration is effectively accomplishing nothing.
Policy wonk that she is, were Hillary Clinton the President, she surely would not have allowed Queen Bee Pelosi to arrogantly craft this stimulus package behind closing doors, clearly demonstrating that Obama’s claim about a new era of bi-partisanship is merely a fantasy. Hillary has worked across the aisle very effectively, and accomplished things Obama could only talk about. You can’t know what you don’t know and unfortunately, the Obama Administration is looking like amateur hour. Everyone expects rookie stumbles, but Hillary, although derided for her claims to be “ready on day one” has proven correct about the need to have a President who is match tough. She surely would not have required his learning curve.
Further, if you have had an opportunity to listen to some of Secretary Clinton’s speeches at the State Department, she is grounded, knowledgeable, positive, and treats her audience with dignity. She talks to them, not at them. She works as a motivating, not a depressing force. Also a quality much desired at this point in time. I am less concerned with the “prettiness” of the words than with the quality and gravitas of them.
At a time like this, with people losing jobs and homes, patience is wearing thin awfully fast. That our elected representatives and our press ignored common sense in pushing Barack Obama anyway is an error in judgment they may not soon live down.
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