As Vice President Joe Biden continues his apology tour through Eastern Europe to mend fences for abandoning long-range missile defense, White House officials are now blaming the new policy’s poor response on a botched roll-out last month. Reports the New York Times’ Peter Baker:

The anger was exacerbated by what White House officials privately admit was a botched introduction of the new plan. Mr. Obama’s decision to shelve the Bush system was leaked, but initial news reports said little if anything about his plan for a substitute system, fueling the perception of a concession to Russia. Worse still in terms of relations with Eastern Europe, the news emerged on the 70th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland at the start of World War II.

“Could we have handled it better, differently? You can always handle things better,” said Antony J. Blinken, Mr. Biden’s national security adviser. “What really created an initial problem were headlines that fundamentally misunderstood, or misrepresented, what we were doing.”

It’s true that the roll-out of the policy was amateurish: The Wall Street Journal apparently surprised the Administration with a report early on Sept. 17, forcing the Pentagon and White House to make the official announcement that day.

But what’s interesting is that the Administration had apparently already made the decision, which is why they were able to confirm the story so quickly. That begs the question: What were they waiting for? Given the decision was fully baked, it seems likely the White House communicators were only hoping the story would hold for a few more days, when they could quietly announce it on a Friday afternoon and avoid the unfortunate anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Poland. (This White House regularly dumps awkward news on Fridays.)

Even now, the White House is less concerned by the content of the initial stories (which were accurate), than the timing and framing of them. But given the continued opposition to this new policy, the negative reaction in Congress and Eastern Europe would almost surely have been the same regardless.

More proof that it’s much easier to blame the communications than the fundamental policy…

Tags: europe, new york times, obama, roll-out, wall street journal, White House