Monday, March 8, 2010

Obama White House Cracking Under Pressure?


Remember how much the media couldn’t stop gushing about how smoothly the Obama presidential campaign was run?

“No drama Obama” was the popular catch phrase that the press reported to the American public.

Let’s be real here.

Even if there was any kind major misstep to report, the Obama “suck-up press” would have intentionally NOT REPORT anything for fear of damaging their ideological savior in Barack Obama.

But, being the president and governing is much different than running for the the office itself.

The problem with the Obama White is that they think it’s all the same.

The Politico reports:

The spate of news stories delving into West Wing palace intrigue has become so relentless that President Barack Obama warned his team against fueling the blaze.

“Don’t get absorbed in the Washington finger-pointing and intrigue,” the president told his senior advisers during a recent meeting, according to one top aide.

He “certainly let us know that we should keep our eye on the ball here and not get distracted by the games of Washington,” the aide said.

The season of turmoil, which has erupted just as Obama is pushing for final health care votes that could determine his domestic legacy, is the most vivid example of how the discipline of the campaign — which prided itself on a tight-knit culture and aides who stayed aloof from the who’s-up, who’s-down obsessions of the press and the Washington political class — has frayed under stress.

After the president’s historic win in 2008, his close aides might have been forgiven for thinking that the usual rules of politics didn’t apply to them — that they could rise above the Washington ways merely by saying they would. But upon taking office, they, too, quickly lapsed into old Washington habits, with several senior staffers sitting for flattering profiles and photo shoots that made them star players in Obama’s world.

And as the waters have grown choppy, some of the key players have taken to defending their actions in the press — which also contributes to a sense that Obama’s White House is getting pulled into the minute-by-minute tit-for-tat it swore to avoid.
Full story

Via Politico

Via Memeorandum

The Last Tradition

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