Obama: Messiah or Mortal?

An Ugly Start

It’s hard to believe President Obama, with a 70% approval rating, could get off to such an ugly start. The mis-steps and mistakes in the first three weeks of the Obama administration is by far the worst in recent memory. The withdrawal of New Hampshire Republican Senator Judd Gregg as Commerce nominee is just another example of screw-ups in the Cabinet selection process. The ridiculous press release of Press Secretary Gibbs saying that Senator Gregg approached President Obama seeking this nomination and then a few hours later admitting this was not so, continues to illustrate the rather lack of political savvy in the Administration and this inept Press Secretary.

Senator Gregg, a fiscal hawk, and respected Senator on both sides of the aisle, could not bring himself to be on this team due to “irresolvable conflicts”. The final straw was announcement that Rahm Emanuel, Chief of Staff, would be overseeing the next census, a prime responsibility of the Commerce Department, thus humiliating the new nominee right off the bat. If this is what our new President calls bi-partisanship, he will have a hard time getting any Republicans to believe he is serious.

In addition, the embarrassment caused by the Treasury, Labor, Performance Office, Commerce, and Health & Human Services nominees and Obama’s revelation that “he screwed up”, although noble, has quickly erased the “messiah” label. To make matters worse the performance of his Treasury Secretary, Tim Geithner, announcing his plan to utilize the remaining $350 billion in TARP funds was devastating. Saying that he doesn’t have the details of his plan worked because “I’ve only been on the job for two weeks” when he has been head of the Federal Reserve from several years and presided over this mess with Paulsen and Bernake since last year, was something that “Joe the Plumber” would say. What a way to build confidence on Wall Street!

So on Monday, President’s Day, Obama will sign the ugly stimulus bill. This is a $789 billion dollar piece of legislation which is supposed to create 3.5-4.0 million new jobs in a few months, years or decades. Do you believe this? Only $282 billion or 35% involves any form of tax cuts but not the cuts we really need like capital gains, and corporate taxes, mainly because those in control, the Democrats and Mr. Obama, don’t feel this is their political ideology nor politically expedient with their constituency.

Your kids and grandchildren will pay for this mistake and your dollars will buy a lot less in the future. This is the ugly result of such an ugly start.