Obama’s Bad Day (Daschle Withdraws, Obama flip flops)

UPDATE: Fox News just put up an article about their interview with Obama where he admits that he made a “mistake” when handling the nomination of Tom Daschle.

Just curious, is he admitting his mistake in nominating him or admitting his mistaken in saying he “absolutely” stood by his nomination? I find it odd that just yesterday, when Daschle wasn’t showing signs of dropping out, Obama said he stood by him, but today when Daschle actually drops out it was suddenly a mistake. If Daschle never drops out would Obama have admitted this “mistake?”

I doubt it.

Read the quote from Obama, it’s difficult to determine exactly what the mistake was.

“I consider this a mistake on my part, one that I intend to fix and correct and make sure that we’re not screwing up again,” Obama said. “Ultimately I have to take responsibility for a process that resulted in us not having a (health and human services) secretary at a time when people need relief on their health care costs.”

So Obama is taking responsibility for the mistaken process, but not the pick of a guy that he knew had tax problems. I feel like he’s simply admitting a mistake with his team’s terrible vetting skills. But if he’s so adamant about correcting it, why would he not get rid of Geithner?

He then reiterates his commitment to fix the mistake.

“So this is a mistake — probably not the first one I’m going to be making in this office, but what I’m absolutely committed to doing is fixing it,” he said.

I’m still not sure what the mistake is. Obviously the vetting process didn’t work, but what exactly was wrong? And what is he going to do to fix it? And if it’s such an issue why not get rid of Geithner? He slipped through the cracks.

UPDATE: Associated Press, CNN, and just about everyone else is reporting that Tom Daschle has withdrawn his name for Secretary of Health and Human Services. This is turning out to be a bad day for Obama.

Is it wrong that I’m not surprised? I don’t think it is. This is the third Obama appointee that has had tax problems, at least she’s smart enough to drop her position.

Nancy Killefer, who failed for a year and a half to pay employment taxes on household help, has withdrawn her candidacy to be the first chief performance officer for the federal government, the White House said Tuesday.

I’m very interested with these three stories. Geither, Daschle, and now Killefer, all failed to pay taxes. Did the Obama camp know about it when he appointed them? Or was his vetting process so terrible that he didn’t catch any of it. In which case the media, once again, deceived us by claiming Obama’s vetting process was rigorous and in-depth.

We also can’t forget that Bill Richardson dropped his name from consideration for commerce secretary after he had grand jury issues in relation to suspicions that he gave out state contracts in a not so ethical manner.

So we can chalk Killefer up as the fourth Obama appointee who should, or in this case did, step down. That’s unfortunate for a guy who claimed he was going to run an ethical and transparent White House.

Other stories you should check out
Stimulus losing support
Obama might plan an 8% increase in defense spending
New York Times calls for Daschle to withdrawal

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