Obama's 'first mistakes' mount
By ANDIE COLLER | 1/8/09 5:01 AM EST - Politico.com
Team Obama has made its first mistake — again.
When Gov. Bill Richardson withdrew his nomination as commerce secretary earlier this week, NBC’s Andrea Mitchell declared it “the Obama team’s first misstep.”
But Mitchell had been scooped.
On Nov. 7 — just three days after the election — Los Angeles’ KNBC said Obama’s flubbed joke about Nancy Reagan and séances was his “first misstep.”
On Nov. 14, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban wrote a Huffington Post piece on Obama’s economic advisory team titled “President-Elect Obama’s First Big Mistake.”
And on Nov. 19, Michael Goodwin of the New York Daily News said Obama’s secretary of state dealings with Hillary Clinton might just have been “his first big mistake.”
First-flub spotting has become something of a national pastime since Nov. 4, with the press floating trial balloons as the first victory balloons hit the ground.
On Nov. 5, the American Prospect wondered whether reports that Obama was considering Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head the Environmental Protection Agency might qualify as his “first mistake.”
The “first mistake” stories kept trickling in until the week before Christmas, when Obama decided to ask Pastor Rick Warren to give the inaugural invocation. Everyone from the Washington Blade to Fox News piled on with versions of the first-big-blunder story.
MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow called Obama’s choice “the first big mistake of his post-election politicking.”
“Mr. Obama’s First Misstep?” the Hartford Courant asked.
“Obama’s first mistake!” the blogosphere answered.
While the Blagojevich scandal prompted a few more “first mistake” rumblings, the press seemed to have decided that the president-elect’s first mistake had come and gone — until Monday, when NBC gave Team Obama another mulligan.
It is not hard to understand why members of the media are interested in catching the incoming administration’s first real gaffe. “It is the business of the media to find error and point it out — there’s nothing wrong with that,” says Stephen Hess, senior fellow emeritus in governance studies at the Brookings Institution.
Besides, Obama — credited with running a nearly mistake-free presidential race — seemed long overdue for one.
(More...)
Team Obama has made its first mistake — again.When Gov. Bill Richardson withdrew his nomination as commerce secretary earlier this week, NBC’s Andrea Mitchell declared it “the Obama team’s first misstep.”
But Mitchell had been scooped.
On Nov. 7 — just three days after the election — Los Angeles’ KNBC said Obama’s flubbed joke about Nancy Reagan and séances was his “first misstep.”
On Nov. 14, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban wrote a Huffington Post piece on Obama’s economic advisory team titled “President-Elect Obama’s First Big Mistake.”
And on Nov. 19, Michael Goodwin of the New York Daily News said Obama’s secretary of state dealings with Hillary Clinton might just have been “his first big mistake.”
First-flub spotting has become something of a national pastime since Nov. 4, with the press floating trial balloons as the first victory balloons hit the ground.
On Nov. 5, the American Prospect wondered whether reports that Obama was considering Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head the Environmental Protection Agency might qualify as his “first mistake.”
The “first mistake” stories kept trickling in until the week before Christmas, when Obama decided to ask Pastor Rick Warren to give the inaugural invocation. Everyone from the Washington Blade to Fox News piled on with versions of the first-big-blunder story.
MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow called Obama’s choice “the first big mistake of his post-election politicking.”
“Mr. Obama’s First Misstep?” the Hartford Courant asked.
“Obama’s first mistake!” the blogosphere answered.
While the Blagojevich scandal prompted a few more “first mistake” rumblings, the press seemed to have decided that the president-elect’s first mistake had come and gone — until Monday, when NBC gave Team Obama another mulligan.
It is not hard to understand why members of the media are interested in catching the incoming administration’s first real gaffe. “It is the business of the media to find error and point it out — there’s nothing wrong with that,” says Stephen Hess, senior fellow emeritus in governance studies at the Brookings Institution.
Besides, Obama — credited with running a nearly mistake-free presidential race — seemed long overdue for one.
(More...)
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