So You Had a Bad Day-Why Barack Obama is still better off than he was two weeks ago

[babylonsister]

So You Had a Bad Day
Why Barack Obama is still better off than he was two weeks ago.
By Bruce Reed
Posted Friday, Feb. 6, 2009




snip//


Obama showed he can take a punch, and learn a lesson. Most Americans root for their President to succeed, and that's especially true for Obama. (On Wednesday morning, Meredith Vieira opened the Today Show with the heartfelt if sartorially suspect suggestion that after the day he'd just had, Obama might want to borrow Al Roker's Snuggie.) Obama handled the first bad news of his presidency with class and candor. He took responsibility, took his lumps, and took the lesson to heart. "I screwed up," he told NBC. "The responsibility era is not never making mistakes. It's owning up to them and trying to make sure you never repeat them."

People expect their leaders to make mistakes, but they're surprised and delighted whenever leaders own up to them. In 1993, Janet Reno became an overnight sensation for taking responsibility for authorizing the FBI's botched raid at Waco. In 2005, by contrast, Michael Brown became a national punch line when Bush praised him for FEMA's disastrous response to Katrina.

It's a gift to be humble. In the early, heady days of the Clinton administration, Sen. Pat Moynihan once warned us, "Anyone willing to admit that they don't have all the answers is always welcome in my office." Moynihan worked a little too hard at teaching us that lesson, but his basic point was right: Most administrations learn too late that humility can be a president's greatest weapon. For example, both Bush administrations had what turned out to be the grand misfortune of becoming too popular too early and overestimated their invincibility as a result.

Obama has already shown himself to be a master of self-deprecation on the stuffed-shirt circuit, joking at Saturday night's Alfalfa Club dinner that the first dog's arrival was delayed because "the labradoodle we picked has some problems with back taxes." That same sense of genuine humility can do an administration good throughout the work week.

Obama's crusade for change is going strong. A day after losing his HHS nominee, Obama signed into law a sweeping children's health bill that will provide coverage to 11 million children—the most progress Washington has made on health care in a decade. Daschle's wisdom and decency will be greatly missed in the tough legislative struggle to broad health care reform. But the ball is already in Congress' court, and key congressional leaders are prepared to hit the ground running. Obama will no doubt use his Feb. 24 address to the nation to up the pressure on Congress to get the job done.

Likewise, for all the sudden gnashing of teeth over the administration's economic message, the Senate is probably on the brink of passing a strong bipartisan bill. The House version left room for improvement, and despite noisy conservative attempts to kill the bill, more well-intentioned grumbling seems likely to produce the desired result: a bill that's harder to grumble about and destined to land soon on the president's desk.

The Obama coalition is emerging. In the long run, that may be the most important lesson of the past week: Slowly but surely, Obama might actually succeed in building the post-partisan working majority he promised, notwithstanding the skepticism and reluctance of some on both sides of the aisle.

more...

http://www.slate.com/id/2210706/

[uberblonde]

1. You think so?

When pigs fly, says I.

[FrenchieCat]

2. Good solid opinion piece.

It was a pleasure to read. :)

[babylonsister]

3. I thought so, too, Frenchie, but a positive opinion piece

doesn't interest many. Go figure.

[Moosepoop]

4. I enjoyed it as well.

Kicked and recommended.

[FrenchieCat]

7. I'm not surprised.

Positivity ain't what we are used to.

[tom_paine]

5. This is an excellent and well-bolstered opinion piece. Hopeful and giving solid reasons for being

so.

I have only one concern, and it is somehwat non-specific and generic, so I understand that it has some holes and may not turn out to be true. It can be boiled down to a simple axiom, as it relates to this specific and many other situations.

This article, while excllent, is giving us the perspective of Conventional Wisdom, or as I like to call it "thinking in CNN".

Only one problem. For the last 8 and probably the last 30 years "thinking CNN' has either been WRONG or played nto Bushiganda's hands.

Therefore, to my mind, any article that "thinks in CNN", like nearly all that kind of thinking before it, these last eight years, is BY DEFINTION INCORRECT, or incorrect >90% of the time.

Most, if not all, of we DUers have a better track record of predicting the future than any bloviating idiot Bushigandist or Toady Pundit who were "thinking in CNN".

As I said, this theory, such as it is, has a lot of logical holes in it, so I would not try to strongly defend it. But it is how I feel after 8 years of Bushiganda. And it has a track record of leading me to the correct analyses MUCH more often than not.

I am suspect of ANYTHING that "thinks in CNN", because for the last eight years and probably the last 30, "thinking in CNN" is almost a guarantee of shortsighted incorrect analyses.

Not very scientific but I stand by it, in this particular case. Feel free to disagree.

[bertman]

6. ". . . the Senate is probably on the brink of passing a strong bipartisan bill."

I don't think I would call it that. I would call it a strongly Republican-influenced bill or an ineffective tax-cut-heavy bill or a watered-down, insufficient stimulus bill.

But on the point that Obama learns quickly and will hopefully not repeat the same mistakes I do remain hopeful. Until, of course, I see some of his picks to assist our new Sec of State in her job.

As we have been reminded time after time on DU, Obama promised during the campaign that he would have a centrist government. Now he's living up to that. Much to my disappointment on many fronts.

But, still I have HOPE.