On Refusing To Apologize: Obama
Being a presidential candidate is hard: each week, in public, you utter thousands of words, make hundreds of decisions, and events often interpose themselves between your best laid plans and your objectives.
So does the press (Just ask John "Hedge Fund Learning Opportunity" Edwards). We're obsessed with gaffes, ticks, and hiccups, often focusing on these tiny pinpricks at the expense of more interesting, important developments. When something unusual happens, the demands for "apologies" , "personal responsibility" or an immediate record correction -- follow. The political world is obsessed with contrition. For some unexplained reason, It is perhaps the only true marker of vulnerability.
Barack Obama makes no more mistakes than any other candidate, but he has a habit of challenging the premise that he is responsible for what error (or alleged error) is brought to his attention. And the press has a habit of printing his excuses, leading Obama's opponents to build a dossier of his alleged unwillingness to take personal responsibility. The most common explanation in Obama's arsenal is that his campaign staff made the mistake and he that bore the consequences; Obama telephoned firefighters in New Hampshire last week because his staff had scheduled him to be in Missouri that Friday, he said.
Sometimes, though, Obama is clearly correct: we noted yesterday that the Chicago Tribune took Obama to task for allegedly getting his facts wrong during his speech on energy in Detroit. But it turns out that Obama was right -- the point he made about Japanese cars was factual and the press misinterpreted what he meant.
Herein, a chronicle of questions and answers, so you can decide.
Why did some think he did poorly at the debate? Per the Chicago Tribune: "I was a little nervous, not so much because it was my first presidential debate, but because there was a 60-second time-limit on answers."
Why did he not know that one of his first and major donors, Tony Rezko, was a slum lord? Obama: "Should I have known these buildings were in a state of disrepair? My answer would be that it wasn't brought to my attention."
Who's responsible for Obama's buying two "obscure" stocks linked to donors? Obama "said the decisions to invest in those two companies were made by the broker without his knowledge, as part of a ‘quasi-blind trust’ arrangement he said he had hoped would fend off conflict-of-interest questions."
Why did he wait so long before condemning Gen. Peter Pace's anti-gay comments? Obama: I'm not sure that the story got out there properly. I mean, what happened was I was leaving a firefighters' union meeting and trying to get in my car and did not respond to a reporter's query at that point. I wasn't responding to reporters period because I was trying to make a vote."
Wny no plan for universal health care yet? From the SEIU/Center for American Progress Health Care forum on 3/24: "Well, keep in mind that our campaign now is I think a little over eight weeks old. And so we will be putting a very detailed plan on our website . . . . One thing I want to make sure of is that you're going -- I'm not sure whether you're going to the campaign website or my Senate website. So we haven't transitioned all that information from our Senate website over to the campaign website." [Awkward ending; obvious, Obama should have stopped at "our campaign is a little over eight weeks old" ]
Why does the media claim he lacks substance? Obama: “I know that one of the running threads, or one of the narratives that’s established itself among the mainstream media is this notion ‘Well, you know, Obama has pretty good style, he can deliver a pretty good speech, but he seems to prioritize rhetoric over substance ... “Now, factually that’s incorrect ... The problem is that that’s not what you guys have been reporting on. You’ve been reporting how I look in a swimsuit." (AP, 2/10)
Why did his staff respond to the Clinton campaign after the David Geffen affair? Obama: “I did tell my staff, and this is reported, I think, in The New York Times, that I thought that we probably should have just entirely left it alone. They had their testosterone going and felt that we had been unfairly attacked."
Also -- why did Obama say he didn't know about the controversy until late into that day? "I just heard about this as I got off the plane. It's not clear to me why I would be apologizing for someone else's remarks. I mean, I don't know the entire story." Also, he was getting a haircut. [MARC AMBINDER]
Can we file this one under "trying to create a meme"? So, I guess the latest potential attack is "Obama doesn't take personal responsibility". It's pretty obvious which decision you'd like us to reach...otherwise, why would you have complied the quotes?
You also don't mention the times when Obama DOES take responsibility for mistakes, like his "wasted lives" comment in NH way back when...which gives the appearance you're stacking the deck to reach a conclusion.
On the "throwing the staff under the bus" argument in general...what candidate doesn't do that? McCain just fired his key staffer in NH...Kerry fired his whole campaign in 2004. Did the candidate take responsibility then? Nope...it's the staff's fault.
Seems like there's a small thread here, but when you pull it, not much happens.
Evolving wisdom???????????? I think not.
WOW! This is interesting.....
I really do miss Chuck Todd he was just a gentleman that I could trust.
Just to add to rashomon above,
Here is Barack Obama taking full responsibility for the 10,000 episode.
"Obama takes criticism in stride"
http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/articles/2007/05/12/news/iowa/fb166d7a1a1df3b1862572d9000f3698.txt
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On Tuesday during a raucous campaign rally in Virginia, the Democratic presidential hopeful mistakenly said "10,000 people" were killed by a tornado in Kansas. The actual death toll at that time stood at 10.
"It just was a slip of the tongue. I just misspoke," Obama said in an interview Friday. "If you had given me a polygraph after I got off the stage at that rally, which was a great rally, a high energy rally, I would have sworn that I said 10.
"You know, sometimes when you're in the heat of the moment, and you're talking fast and people are clapping, you misspeak," Obama said.
But in an era when politics is waged 24 hours a day on talk radio, cable news networks and Internet blogs, Obama's small slip turned into instant news. His momentary gaffe was replayed relentlessly.
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If there's one candidate who is humble and is quick to accept responsiblity, its Obama.
You forgot that he blamed hte YouTube video on a staff member and the MySpace incident on staff as well.
When is Hotline going to come up with a similar "meme" or list for its favorite candidates like Romney, Hillary, McCain, etc?
This is a perfect example of poor journalism. I'll be saving this one. Thanks Hotline.
I will eat my shirt if you run anything this churlish and picayune about a Republican candidate, any of 'em.
Come back, Chuck, we miss you.
What a shame!!! Come on everybody think for yourselves. This guy would have you thing that all the other smucks running for President are flawless. Lets see we have a cross dresser, an old fart, a shrew, and the hypocrit that roared at clinton. None of these people care about everyday Americans. (Maybe Obama and Edwards) They are in it to win it for themselves.
Everything in this post very nicely describes why journalism is in such a sorry state today.
Why talk about boring stuff like how will policies, proposals, and ideologies impact ordinary Americans lives and the lives of billions of people around the world? No way! We want to cover ad nauseum the most trivial pathetic details and "gaffes" we can come up with. It's time to turn you guys off.
wow...
clinton's camp is feeding u this garbage?? lol
is this really their best stuff??
Yet audiences continue to pack Obama's events and voters could care less whether your string of 4-5 quotes out of 2,000 over the last 4 months don't reflect "your idea" of personal responsiblity.
I guess only pundits read Hotline. And we do know what Obama thinks of them.
Marc, this a truly bizarre post. I don't even know where to begin.
First, you fail to establish that even a single of these statements by Obama is untrue, thereby entirely undermining any possible point you might have. Second, you fail to include obvious examples of Obama taking responsibility for various things, again underming any possible point you might have. And finally, you cite such minor, pedestrian, everyday events that you couldn't possibly establish a meaningful pattern of behavior anyway. It's like citing eight occaions over the last year in which Obama had spaghetti and concluding that he has some sort of strange predeliction for italian food.
What is your problem with Obama? This post is just so weird.
rashomom wrote:
On the "throwing the staff under the bus" argument in general...what candidate doesn't do that?
Damn straight. I wish I had a nickel for every staffer's horror story that emanated from Hillary's time in both the Arkansas Governor's mansion and the White House. My personal favotite:
"If you want to remain on this detail, get your f**king ass over here and grab those bags!" (From the book "The First Partner" p. 259 - Hillary to a Secret Service Agent who was reluctant to carry her luggage because he wanted to keep his hands free in case of an incident.)
The guy who wrote this crap is not a journalist. Otherwise, I would call Drudge or Rush Limbaugh journalists. Go figure.
This is not his first time this site made shit up to bash Obama. There must have an agenda but only God knows what that is.
Obama was not right on his facts. He was quoting figures by Pew which were jimmied as was explained on pwerlineblog.com. anyone can see that Obama's and Pew's figures are wrojg simply by googling Fuel effciency and miles per gallon. The truth is that very few Japnese cars get 45 mpg and certainly that is far above the majority.
Sorry to see that Paul D is recycling all that unsubstantiated garbage about Hillary. Next he will be reminding us that she killed Vince Foster!
Yesterday’s ARG poll shows Hillary dominating Obama nationwide by 19%. It’s just the latest poll to demonstrate that Obama cannot get traction despite all the months of the glowing national press. Sooner or later, he better produce some competitive poll numbers or the luster is going to fade further from his candidacy. A decent debate performance might help too.
This post has received a well-deserved drubbing.