A Stark Difference …
By DAVID ORTEZ on February 05, 2009
“Yes. I think I made a mistake … I campaigned on changing Washington and bottom-up politics. And I don't want to send a message to the American people that there are two sets of standards, one for powerful people, and one for ordinary folks who are working every day and paying their taxes … I take responsibility for it and we're going to make sure we fix it so it doesn't happen again.” - President Obama on Tom Daschle
The far right has been on a meme this week and who can blame them. President Obama set himself up by failing to properly vet two of his nominees who ran into tax problems.
I am quite proud that these nominees put their ego’s aside and instead of seeking the nomination, they stepped down. A stark difference from the environment that was prevalent in the last 8 years.
There is no hubris in Obama … no matter how much Republicans attempt to brand him as such. Former President Bush aka W. exemplified the hubris we speak of. He was too pompous to admit defeat or responsibility for failures.
Under the W. regime … the Intelligence community was blamed for the justification to engage in the Iraq War. Local and State Agencies were blamed for the mismanagement of relief efforts in New Orleans after Hurricane Ike. He blamed Democrats for passing a bill that Bush signed that did not provide adequate equipment for troops in combat. The list goes on and on.
What is different though … is that Obama has not embraced this ideology. In what is considered his first shortcoming, Obama did not exonerate himself by shifting the blame to the Chief of Staff or Vetting Team.
No, he took responsibility for his Administration’s actions and vowed to not let it happen again. This is truly inspiring and honorable but unfortunately “inspiring and honorable” will neither sell newspapers nor TV commercials and as such the topic du jour returns to Obama’s first goof up.
