While patience can be a virtue, it certainly hasn’t served me well these last two weeks as I have watched, waited and wondered at what our new President might do next. While it seemed for a time that he was off to a running start, he has reminded me more of an athlete in full forward motion who isn’t totally in control of his balance. There were more than a few stumbles, even if his motion was generally in the right direction.
Our new President’s biggest problem was his suffering from an acute case of the Old Pol Syndrome. He began by leaning heavily on Old Pols for his more senior positions, even while making some seemingly great choices of relative unknowns for lesser positions. When you combine that with either a poor vetting of backgrounds or a temptation to risk sending forth a nomination in light of the poor results of a thorough background check, he brought his overall grade down significantly from where it might have been.
I can certainly understand the temptation to bring in a Tom Daschle to fix something as complicated and controversial as health care. The politics involved are significant and Daschle is, if nothing else, a consummate politician. However, he can’t be the only experienced politician who can do the job, and putting him forward after he had to pay a whopping $140,000 in unpaid taxes was unnecessary Presidential risk taking. To have had to pay tax in that amount, Mr. Daschle had to fail to report income in the $400,000 to $500,000 range. That simply cannot amount to an oversight – at least it doesn’t in the minds of those of us in the middle class who put so much faith into the Obama campaign.
When you combine the Daschle problem with those of his other appointments who also suffered from tax problems, you have to assume that someone in the administration believes that not paying taxes, while naughty, is not a bar to higher office. What happened to the Mr. Clean image that our new President was trying to create from Day One? Someone goofed and, in the final analysis, that someone had to be the President, since I simply cannot believe that he was unaware of the relevant information prior to making the appointments in question.
My father always told me that life was really quite simple – if you did the right thing morally, you would generally succeed. He also taught me that if your gut hints to you that a decision you are about to take is questionable, either don’t take the action or think again and fix matters prior to proceeding. While my father was never President of these United States, nor will I ever be, it simply has to be true that greatness as a President includes the ability to stick to these homespun truths even in the midst of the greatest temptation to abandon them. All major decisions have at their core a basic condition set of right and wrong, and the trick is to see through the complications and the compromises and to recognize these basics for what they are and to act accordingly.
I truly thought that President Obama was a believer in the basics, but I worry that he may have caught Potomac Fever even prior to his inauguration. On the other hand, his choice of Steven Chu for Energy Secretary seems to have been remarkable, even if Mr. Chu is, as yet, unproven with respect to his political skills. It will be interesting to watch how Mr Chu does in light of the Daschle debacle. Can this man without prior political experience effectively operate at the highest levels of government and become a force for change, or will he founder in the Washington DC muck and mire. For me, his appointment is the most interesting of all of President Obama’s choices to date. If he can come in and effectively run a large federal bureaucracy without prior political experience, it may well be an indication to future Presidents that the antidote to the Old Pol Syndrome lies in thinking outside of the usual Washington DC box. Only time will tell.
On other fronts, the President moved forward with seeming confidence in ways that were in accord with his promises. The administration seems to have got it right with respect to closing Guantanamo, stopping the military tribunals, changing our foreign policy tone, and learning to listen to foreign leaders instead of preaching to them in belittling tones. The administration seems to be hitting long balls as to foreign policy, while striking out in its appointments.
Accordingly, I can only give the President C+ for his first few weeks in office. It pains me to do so, since I had so hoped for a change from business as usual in Washington, but business as usual has, so far, been the routine. The Republicans have yet to learn the meaning of the term “Loyal Opposition”, the Democratic majority in Congress needs to learn the meaning of the infinitive “to listen”, and the President needs to show effective leadership by not appointing Old Pols just because they have cachet from rising above the usual Washington rank and file. In making further appointments to high office, the President needs to remember that the politics of Washington for the past two decades were not the politics of our best and brightest, but were, instead, the politics of mudslinging, yellow journalism and rampant, unchecked partisan mediocrity. If he is going to make appointments from among the participants of this untasty stew, he had best choose someone capable of throwing stones when stones are required.
I have not given up hope for this Administration, as these are early days and there are many encouraging signs amid the screw ups. If he can avoid the historical, lethal dependency that the institution of the White House usually has in recycling Old Pols, it may garner his Administration a much higher grade over the long haul of a four year term. To do so, the President needs to learn from his early mistakes and greatly improve the quality of his game. If the President is really who many of us think he is, the poor grade may well serve as a needed wake up call for him to return to the basics and not let Foggy Bottom obscure his view of his own moral standards. If so, maybe an early stumble can be turned into a valuable learning experience on the way to a high grade.
I remember with fondness the poor grades I received at the end of my first quarter in college. I entered college with a fair degree of arrogance, having served as my High School salutatorian and as a graduation speaker, only to find myself firmly enmeshed in solid C’s at the end of a lackluster first quarter. I say that I remember this with fondness, because I became truly disgusted with my performance and immediately realized that it was wholly up to me to improve if I wanted to succeed. To my great satisfaction I did significantly improve, but only because I first stumbled so badly.
I hope the President knows he has stumbled, can accept the humility of having failed the standards he set for himself, and will step up his game in future. I will continue to watch, grade and hold my breath along with the rest of those who really have hoped that one man can make a difference.
