That New Car Administration Smell
As anyone who has bought a car knows, the minute you turn the key and drive it off the lot, the depreciation begins. So it is with the bright, shiny Obama administration. All of a sudden, it doesn’t look so bright and shiny. Toby Harnden explains:
What a difference an election makes. On the campaign trail, candidate Barack Obama vowed to fix Washington’s “broken politics”, which had become “gummed up by money and influence”. In the age of Obama, he promised, government would no longer be “a tool to enrich friends and high-priced lobbyists”. The stakes were too high to play the “same old Washington games with the same old Washington players”. The slogan was: “Change you can believe in.”
Now that he is in office, however, the new dawn is looking like a false one. His administration is crammed to the gills with alumni of Bill Clinton’s White House; Hillary Clinton, whom Obama mocked as the epitome of what was wrong with politics, is now secretary of state.
There have been attempts to give lobbyists top jobs in the Obama administration. Tom Daschle, a former senator and the personification of the slick operator richly rewarded for his influence-peddling, was nominated as health secretary. As with two other Obama nominees, it subsequently emerged that he had failed to pay all his taxes, and yesterday he was forced to withdraw his name from consideration.
It is still very early on in the Obama presidency, yet Obama is already having to defend what looks an awful lot like a double standard. His nominees are given slack on things that would destroy an average American. The abrupt withdrawal of Tom Daschle saved Obama from some additional heat, but a lot of damage was already done.
That new administration smell is beginning to whiff of corruption already.
By Larry Sheldon, February 4, 2009 @ 4:20 pm
That New Administration Smell….
Reminds me of an Iowa hog lot after a warm rain. (Which is to say, better than a Nebraska feed lot. Or maybe not.)
By Gordon, February 6, 2009 @ 11:14 am
Gosh, wonder what happens when you elect a guy with zero executive experience and no experience outside of politics?