Obama goes on TV and admits, in effect, that his Obamacare "regime" on the internet isn't working. Back to basics? Who's to know.... as his minions try and get things on track.
In the meantime, just about everything Obama is involved in turns sour or goes wrong - or is being challenged by even some of those in his own Democratic Party.
Thomas Keller, writing earlier this week in The New York Times, thought it appropriate to give Obama some advice as his stocks slip ever lower.
"President Obama is under water. His approval in the polls is low and sinking, his signature initiative is staggering from a combination of incompetence and sabotage, his foreign policy is a jumble. Congress is a Bermuda Triangle where the most elementary White House business disappears. The public is numbed and disgusted. Allies are theatrically furious about eavesdropping. Put it this way:
When the water-cooler buzz in Washington is focused on Obama’s near-death experience in last year’s campaign debates, it’s pretty clear he is not setting the agenda.
I have a few suggestions for how Obama might lift his presidency up from the bottom. The to-do list that follows consists of ideas that are worth doing on the merits and advantageous on the politics. Most of them are familiar, because this is a time to revive the best features of a stalled presidency, not to launch grand new initiatives. It’s not that I want the president to think small; by all means, address the threat of climate catastrophe and push ahead on early childhood education. But he needs to get a few wins on the scoreboard. I invite readers to post their own suggestions in the comments section.
The first job is obvious, not least to the president. The bungling of the health care rollout was a humiliation for an administration whose campaign wizards famously tamed the social network in 2012. It has given Republicans license to feign indignation even as they do their best to undermine the new program. It has distracted the press from both the success stories (like Kentucky, where the rollout worked the way it was supposed to) and the episodes of Republican mischief (like Georgia, where the state blocked the hiring of “navigators” to help applicants through the enrollment process). I have no doubt that the administration will get the system working and that the program will ultimately prove popular. But the longer it takes, the more the president squanders the already meager public confidence that he can do anything right."
Continue reading here.
In the meantime, just about everything Obama is involved in turns sour or goes wrong - or is being challenged by even some of those in his own Democratic Party.
Thomas Keller, writing earlier this week in The New York Times, thought it appropriate to give Obama some advice as his stocks slip ever lower.
"President Obama is under water. His approval in the polls is low and sinking, his signature initiative is staggering from a combination of incompetence and sabotage, his foreign policy is a jumble. Congress is a Bermuda Triangle where the most elementary White House business disappears. The public is numbed and disgusted. Allies are theatrically furious about eavesdropping. Put it this way:
When the water-cooler buzz in Washington is focused on Obama’s near-death experience in last year’s campaign debates, it’s pretty clear he is not setting the agenda.
I have a few suggestions for how Obama might lift his presidency up from the bottom. The to-do list that follows consists of ideas that are worth doing on the merits and advantageous on the politics. Most of them are familiar, because this is a time to revive the best features of a stalled presidency, not to launch grand new initiatives. It’s not that I want the president to think small; by all means, address the threat of climate catastrophe and push ahead on early childhood education. But he needs to get a few wins on the scoreboard. I invite readers to post their own suggestions in the comments section.
The first job is obvious, not least to the president. The bungling of the health care rollout was a humiliation for an administration whose campaign wizards famously tamed the social network in 2012. It has given Republicans license to feign indignation even as they do their best to undermine the new program. It has distracted the press from both the success stories (like Kentucky, where the rollout worked the way it was supposed to) and the episodes of Republican mischief (like Georgia, where the state blocked the hiring of “navigators” to help applicants through the enrollment process). I have no doubt that the administration will get the system working and that the program will ultimately prove popular. But the longer it takes, the more the president squanders the already meager public confidence that he can do anything right."
Continue reading here.
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