The following editorial from the San Francisco Examiner asks (and then succinctly answers) the question, " Is it amateur hour at the Obama White House?"It was embarrassing enough that President Barack Obama insulted British Prime Minister Gordon Brown last week by handing him 25 movie videos as the chief executive’s diplomatic gift to the visiting representative of America’s most important ally. Compared to Brown’s gifts, which included a pen holder made of wood from a British warship that helped stamp out the slave trade, Obama’s gift, in the words of The Telegraph, looked like the kind of thing the White House might hand out to the visiting head of a minor African state. Even worse is the context in which this huge diplomatic gaffe took place — a six-week succession of miscues, oversights, miscalculations and outright errors that suggest things have gone seriously awry in the White House.
* Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tells a European Union gathering that American democracy has been around a lot longer than European democracy. This no doubt particularly surprised the Dutch, whose republic commenced years before the U.S. won its independence. Somebody should tell Clinton about Athens, too.
* White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orzag say Obama will sign the $410 billion omnibus spending bill because it is last year’s business, even though the bill requires the presidents signature now to become law. This despite promising before the election a line-by-line battle against waste. Obama has or soon will sign bills containing more than 17,000 earmarks.
* Catastrophe would result from delays in passing the $787 billion economic stimulus bill, according to Obama, who then took a four-day shopping trip with his family in Chicago before signing the emergency legislation.
* Obama’s first commerce secretary nominee is forced to withdraw, as are his first choice for Health and Human Services Department secretary and several of his picks for top White House policy positions, due to assorted tax and other ethical problems that should have been caught during the transition process.
* Attorney General Eric Holder calls Americans a nation of cowards for allegedly not talking enough about race issues. Even the president is forced to publicly disavow Holder’s assertion.
* Treasurer Secretary Timothy Geithner is touted as the only man who can fix the banking system, but, weeks after his controversial nomination is confirmed, crucial details of his plan remain a mystery, along with who will fill numerous senior positions within his department.
The president remains personally popular, but nothing so erodes public confidence as the perception of ineptitude. Policy differences are one thing, but Americans won’t accept incompetence in the Oval Office.
