Apologizing
It’s been absolutely insane to watch people give a complete pass to Obama’s decisions because he observes various niceties. Are people really this shallow that they’ll respond to the polite gestures while ignoring the substance? Apparently so.
For instance, many people, not just me, are up in arms about the decisions of the new Democrat Administration. The campaign was run on bipartisanship, paving a new way forward, and many criticized Bush’s bailouts. Then theygained office, steamrolled the opposition by passing unprecedently liberal bills, while letting the banking problem fester until they decided to try Bush’s plan–but with more giveaways to hedge funds. They’ve done a lot to capitalize on the economic crisis for their own goals, but have done little to solve it. In fact, their populist screeches and high-minded ethics requirements have been major impediments to staffing the Treasury Department and spending the money to fix things.
Obviously, passing judgement after a few months can be a little harsh. But the reason we usually do that is because nothing generally happens in the first three months; we’ve actually now seen about as much action as an average President could do in a single term. Should people not have an opinion about radically different new programs, simply because they happen to pass in a short amount of time after a person takes office? Should we resist commenting on the new GM chief executive because, after all, he’s just settling in?
When confronted with instances of mistakes, Obama’s response is generally to immediately take responsibility and apologize. When the happens, the media forgets about the whole story. Is it really that simple? Can you really disown any responsibility simply by accepting responsibility? I mean, I’m constantly in awe of this ability to game the media. But it’s a little sad that journalists really aren’t after fixing problems or dealing with issues–they just want people to observe protocol. I can’t imagine how the response to the Bush Administration would have been had they had a half-decent PR person who knew how to actually spin the media instead of simply always looking guilty and crooked.
