LETTER FROM WASHINGTON
Despite early miscues, a good start for Obama
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WASHINGTON: Barack Obama has transformed American politics. His honeymoon is over. Bipartisanship has been revived, or killed. The White House is dominating the Republicans; the president doesn't engender any fear. His financial rescue plan is doomed, a "shock and ugh."
This all after 25 days, according to conclusions by the Washington cognoscenti.
The reality: Obama is off to a good start, even as he has suffered personnel embarrassments and made mistakes. If the presidential campaign is a model, the Obamaites will quickly learn from the miscues. More importantly, he faces even more daunting challenges than was supposed last year: the financial crisis at home and Afghanistan abroad.
The best perspective on the early stages may be from thousands of miles away and from those who understand the inside-the-Beltway political culture. None are better than James Baker, a Republican former secretary of State and Treasury and White House chief of staff, and now a Houston lawyer; and Peter Hart, the pre-eminent Democratic pollster of the last generation, now teaching at the University of California at Berkeley.
Baker says Obama is off to a pretty good start; Hart says a very good start. Split the difference.
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"I am comfortable with the pragmatic approach he has taken on a lot of foreign policy issues," Baker says. He especially praises the new administration for "showing from day one they're going to do something on the Arab-Israeli dispute. He adds, "Too many times that has been left to the end of an administration."
He notes that Obama has suggested that he wants to model his presidency stylistically after that of Ronald Reagan, yet wonders about the strategy of reaching out to Republicans one day and assailing them the next. "Reagan did not move so quickly between sugar and vinegar."
Hart, taking exception to charges that the new president seems weak, sees him providing "strong leadership" and says Obama continues to benefit from "the three words that are still driving public attitudes: accountability, transparency and unity."
There has been no shortage of difficulties, many caused by the vaunted Obama political operation. On the economic stimulus package, the Republicans won the communications war; the White House lacked speed and coherence. The plethora of controversies over cabinet appointments reflects inadequate vetting and hubris.
More substantively, the Obama team has been told by important allies on Wall Street and on Capitol Hill that it was a mistake to create a big buildup to the financial rescue plan, then not deliver the details. The stock market tanked, congressional Democrats complained, the public wondered. It was an inauspicious start for the youthful new Treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner.
On foreign policy, Afghanistan increasingly looks like a nightmare, and critics wonder who is going to manage all the czars and special envoys assembled. Last week one Hillary Rodham Clinton intimate worried about the new secretary of state's "relevancy."
On the surface, the Obama plea for a change in the political culture looks futile. During the campaign, Greg Craig, now the White House counsel, spoke of Obama's ability "to inspire the forces of reaction to join us in treating people better."
That was a delusion from the usually insightful Craig. The Rush Limbaugh-led forces of reaction don't want to be inspired.
Obama, more a realist than a romantic, knows this. He believes, according to people who have spoken to him, that the public wants bipartisan overtures and that if Republicans march in negative lock step, they will ultimately pay the price.
Bipartisan achievements are always selective. Senator Dick Lugar, an Indiana Republican, opposes the president's stimulus plan and refused to travel to his home state with Obama last week. On Afghanistan, he'll provide invaluable assistance.
On some of the tougher issues like energy and health care and the financial rescue plan, there will be different Republicans who will be willing to participate in compromises out of self-interest. None of this should overlook two huge Obama successes. He's going to sign a massive stimulus package less than a month after taking office. It took Reagan and Bill Clinton and George W. Bush much longer to win approval for their far less ambitious initial priorities.
Second, Obama's skills were on display at a televised news conference held last week, the earliest prime-time session held by any president. He was a little long-winded, slightly pedantic and failed to utilize occasional flashes of humor. He'd do well to go look at John F. Kennedy's news conferences.
Nevertheless, Obama did better than any modern president in the "explainer in chief" role, demonstrating that while he may need to polish a few edges, the talent is exceptional.
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