The New Yorker’s George Packer writes about the trouble he had completing his recent, must-read profile of Richard Holbrooke, coming to the conclusion that the Obama White House is treating press the same way the Obama campaign did:

It all comes down to message discipline, controlling the news cycle, preventing leaks, strategic communications—or “stratcom,” in the Newspeakish term that I first encountered at occupation authority headquarters in Baghdad, back in 2003.

His conclusion is essentially that the Obama team is trying to keep such a tight lid on information that eventually it will choke public understanding (and support):

For policies to work, they have to be explained to the country, not once but again and again, and not just by the President in infrequent speeches but by the senior-level officials who helped establish them and are charged with carrying them out. Otherwise, public confidence can turn to dust in a hurry. Afghanistan is a case in point.

His broader point – that the Obama Administration has failed to elevate officials other than the President – is one that I wholeheartedly agree with (and have raised before).

Packer points to Afghanistan, but the problem there is not the lack of senior officials capable of advocating and explaining the Administration’s policy — it’s the lack of a policy altogether. The better example is the current health care debate, where the Administration is desperately lacking a messenger to support the President’s (over-exposed) efforts (as Cillizza pointed out yesterday).