Is The Administration Winging It?

[cmotherofpirl]

Is the Administration Winging It?
Obama's reputation for competence is at risk.

By KARL ROVE
Team Obama demonstrated remarkable discipline during the presidential campaign. From raising an unprecedented amount of money to milking every advantage from the Internet to grabbing lots of delegates from inexpensive caucus states, they left nothing to chance.

And now the administration has scored a major legislative victory in an extraordinarily short period of time. Less than 700 hours after taking the oath of office, President Barack Obama signed the largest spending bill in American history.

The Opinion Journal Widget
Download Opinion Journal's widget and link to the most important editorials and op-eds of the day from your blog or Web page.
Nevertheless, this fast start can't overcome a growing sense the administration is winging it on issues large and small.

Take the vetting of cabinet nominees. Mr. Obama's aides ignored a federal investigation of New Mexico's Gov. Bill Richardson that started last August for a possible pay-for-play scandal. Mr. Richardson had to withdraw after being named to become secretary of commerce.

The administration treated as inconsequential the failure of its choices for Treasury secretary and White House performance officer, as well as its labor secretary-designate's spouse, to pay taxes. It failed to uncover Tom Daschle's problems with more than $102,943 in previously unpaid taxes, penalties and interest -- and once it did, aides assumed Mr. Daschle would be given a pass.

Team Obama promised Gen. Anthony Zinni he'd be ambassador to Iraq, then cut him loose without explanation. After the Bill Richardson fiasco, it romanced Republican Sen. Judd Gregg for commerce secretary -- then ignored his advice on the stimulus and wouldn't trust him with running the department, moving supervision of the Census into the White House. Mr. Gregg withdrew himself from consideration.

Then there is the stimulus itself. Mr. Obama's economic team met with congressional leaders in December to green light a bill costing up to $850 billion. But they described less than $200 billion of what they wanted in the envelope. In return for outsourcing the bill's drafting to Congress, the administration took on two responsibilities: running polls to advise Hill Democrats on how to sharpen their marketing, and putting the president on the road to sell a bill others wrote.

About Karl Rove
Karl Rove served as Senior Advisor to President George W. Bush from 2000–2007 and Deputy Chief of Staff from 2004–2007. At the White House he oversaw the Offices of Strategic Initiatives, Political Affairs, Public Liaison, and Intergovernmental Affairs and was Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy, coordinating the White House policy making process.

Before Karl became known as "The Architect" of President Bush's 2000 and 2004 campaigns, he was president of Karl Rove + Company, an Austin-based public affairs firm that worked for Republican candidates, nonpartisan causes, and nonprofit groups. His clients included over 75 Republican U.S. Senate, Congressional and gubernatorial candidates in 24 states, as well as the Moderate Party of Sweden.

Karl writes a weekly op-ed for The Wall Street Journal, is a Newsweek columnist and is now writing a book to be published by Simon & Schuster. Email the author at Karl@Rove.com or visit him on the web at Rove.com.
Team Obama was winging it when it declared the stimulus would "save or create" 2.5 million, then three million, then 3.7 million, and then four million new jobs. These were arbitrary and erratic numbers, and they knew there's no way to count "saved" jobs. Americans, being commonsensical, will focus on Mr. Obama's promise to "create" jobs. It's highly unlikely that more than 180,000 jobs will be created each month by the end of next year. The precise, state-by-state job numbers the administration used to sell the stimulus are likely to come back to haunt them as well.

Bipartisanship? The administration failed even to respond to GOP offers to endorse an Obama campaign proposal to suspend capital gains taxes for new small businesses.

Inexplicably, the president, in a prime-time press conference, raised expectations for Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner's bank rescue plan, which turned out the next day to be no plan at all. The markets craved details; they got none. When markets cratered, spokesmen didn't acknowledge the administration's poor planning, but blamed the markets.

Team Obama was also winging it on enhanced interrogation of terrorists. First it nullified all the Bush administration's legal authorities before considering what rules it should have in place. When the CIA briefed White House officials on the results obtained from these techniques, the administration backtracked and organized a four-month study of what rules were appropriate.

Something similar happened with the promise to close Guantanamo Bay within a year: The administration has no idea what it will do with the violent terrorists detained there. And on ethics, Mr. Obama proclaimed an end to lobbyist influence in government -- even as he was nominating lobbyists for major posts and filling White House ranks with former lobbyists.

Team Obama has been living off its campaign reputation for planning and execution. That reputation is now frayed, and all the bumbling and unforced errors will have an impact. Such things don't go unnoticed on Capitol Hill or in foreign capitals.

The president, a bright and skilled politician, has plenty of time to recover. The danger is that what we have seen is not an aberration, but the early indications of his governing style. Barack Obama won the job he craved, now he must demonstrate that he and his team are up to its requirements. The signs are worrisome. The world is a dangerous place. The days of winging it need to end.

Wall Street Journal

[Saint Therese]

THey have no clue what they're doing. Its transparently obvious.

[Lounge Daddy]

What do you mean government doesn't know what it's doing?

[dominicansoul]

the sad thing, they may not know what they are doing, but they are getting it done.....

...at who's expense???

[Madame Vengier]

I agree. They are clueless and don't have the first idea what they are doing. Obama is the single most unqualified human being to ever run for election, not to mention become President. But unfortunately, Karl Rove has zero moral or ethical authority to be writing on the matter. Therefore, his message will be ignored no matter how true it is.

[txdinghysailor]

the government never knows what it's doing. Look at Katrina. THe only federal agency which provided a timely, useful response was the US Coast Guard, not FEMA, who should've been leading the charge.

[Archaeology cat]

[quote name='Madame Vengier' post='1788161' date='Feb 22 2009, 03:57 PM']I agree. They are clueless and don't have the first idea what they are doing. Obama is the single most unqualified human being to ever run for election, not to mention become President. But unfortunately, Karl Rove has zero moral or ethical authority to be writing on the matter. Therefore, his message will be ignored no matter how true it is.[/quote]
Pretty much what I was thinking.

[cmotherofpirl]

[quote name='txdinghysailor' post='1788169' date='Feb 22 2009, 12:02 PM']the government never knows what it's doing. Look at Katrina. THe only federal agency which provided a timely, useful response was the US Coast Guard, not FEMA, who should've been leading the charge.[/quote]
Wrong. It is the locals first , then states job to lead the charge, backed up by the federal government. The state responses to Katrina was abject failure.

[CatherineM]

[quote name='cmotherofpirl' post='1788266' date='Feb 22 2009, 12:12 PM']Wrong. It is the locals first , then states job to lead the charge, backed up by the federal government. The state responses to Katrina was abject failure.[/quote]

We also have personal responsibility for ourselves and our family. I always made sure my hurricane kit was in place every summer. I was visiting in Canada during Wilma, and remember watching Jeb on TV giving a talk in exasperation that people were in line for ice and water barely an hour after the all clear, and were complaining that the government wasn't acting fast enough. We are supposed to be able to take care of ourselves for at least 3 days, and preferably 2 weeks after a storm. We seem to have it in mind that we should just sit around and wait for someone else to save us from our own lack of preparation. After storms, we helped each other out in our neighborhood. After Hurricane Charlie, I ferried neighbors back and forth to their houses because my VW Van was so high off the ground, that it didn't flood out in the high water. It's as if no one is learning how to take care of themselves anymore.

[Saint Therese]

Exactly. In reality it was the local and state gov't of Louisiana that failed in response to Katrina, and then the federal gov't had to respond. Their response was actually great, but they get blamed for the failure of state and local gov'ts.

[cmotherofpirl]

[quote name='CatherineM' post='1788357' date='Feb 22 2009, 04:05 PM']We also have personal responsibility for ourselves and our family. I always made sure my hurricane kit was in place every summer. I was visiting in Canada during Wilma, and remember watching Jeb on TV giving a talk in exasperation that people were in line for ice and water barely an hour after the all clear, and were complaining that the government wasn't acting fast enough. We are supposed to be able to take care of ourselves for at least 3 days, and preferably 2 weeks after a storm. We seem to have it in mind that we should just sit around and wait for someone else to save us from our own lack of preparation. After storms, we helped each other out in our neighborhood. After Hurricane Charlie, I ferried neighbors back and forth to their houses because my VW Van was so high off the ground, that it didn't flood out in the high water. It's as if no one is learning how to take care of themselves anymore.[/quote]
The Boy Scouts are not politically correct anymore , and the Girl Scouts have abandoned most of the emergency preparedness and camping stuff, so who is left to teach anything? Unless you have had some military training you can be clueless.

[CatherineM]

[quote name='cmotherofpirl' post='1788482' date='Feb 22 2009, 03:55 PM']The Boy Scouts are not politically correct anymore , and the Girl Scouts have abandoned most of the emergency preparedness and camping stuff, so who is left to teach anything? Unless you have had some military training you can be clueless.[/quote]
I was a Camp Fire Girl. They now let boys in, so I'm not too sure they haven't gone PC as well. With my boys, we went through 7 Boy Scout troops before we found run that was run by a "real" man.

[cmotherofpirl]

[quote name='CatherineM' post='1788516' date='Feb 22 2009, 06:17 PM']I was a Camp Fire Girl. They now let boys in, so I'm not too sure they haven't gone PC as well. With my boys, we went through 7 Boy Scout troops before we found run that was run by a "real" man.[/quote]


I was a camping leader in Girl Scouts before they went PC, and my sons were in Boy Scouts as was my daughter. The troops were very big on camping and survival skills.

[Hassan]

[quote name='cmotherofpirl' post='1788526' date='Feb 22 2009, 06:22 PM']I was a camping leader in Girl Scouts before they went PC, and my sons were in Boy Scouts as was my daughter. The troops were very big on camping and survival skills.[/quote]


I can make a warm shelter out of trees now.

I think the boy scouts are a good thing. Provided the actually focus on outdoor skills.


my leader was a vietnam vet who had scars from some bullets he caught with his leg while a Marine in country.

I liked it/

[Maximilianus]

[quote name='CatherineM' post='1788516' date='Feb 22 2009, 05:17 PM']...With my boys, we went through 7 Boy Scout troops before we found run that was run by a "real" man.[/quote]
lol.
In todays society it's hard for a real man to run a troop if the parents aren't on the same page.
I was a BS in the 80's, we were decent. We were pretty proficient whe it came to the the lore of scouting.
I've thought about becoming a Scout Master but I probably wouldn't make it a week before I would have parents complain that I'm too strict and demanding...and I wouldn't be. I'm a laid back guy, I just expect folks to adhere to standards, do what they are told and have some pride and self respect.
And I realize that the Scouts aren't a military organization but a little uniformity and discipline never hurt anyone...too much.
A Scout is
Trustworthy
Loyal
Helpful
Friendly
Courteous
Kind
Obedient
Cheerful
Thrifty
Brave
Clean &
Reverent
..I would hold them to this.

maybe we could get our Government to follow these principles