Reflecting on the President’s evolving response to the failed Christmas attack, NBC’s First Read today sees a pattern in the Obama Team’s frequent early mishandling of news events:
During the presidential campaign, Team Obama often displayed this pattern when dealing with a troubling story: They swung and missed on the first pitch or two (bad first day response), then singled up the middle on the following pitch (adequate response), and finally, in many cases, scored (truly found their stride). Some examples that come to mind: Jeremiah Wright and the “bitter” controversy. And this pattern reared its head again regarding the failed terrorist attack. Compare Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano’s “the system worked” and even the president’s initial statement on the failed attack, to John Brennan’s strong performance on “Meet” yesterday and Obama’s equally strong weekly address on Saturday and his SECOND statement last week when he said there were “human and systemic failures.”
The NBC political unit is absolutely correct that the Obama Team was prone to stumbling out of the gates during the campaign. In addition to the Wright & “bitter” episodes, their initial attack (and then backtracking) on Sarah Palin was incredibly inartful.
But it’s not a problem, as the NBC guys suggest, that the Obama team somehow had solved between the campaign and the failed Christmas attack. To the contrary, the Obama Administration has initially fumbled plenty of events in the last 12 months, most significantly the initial response to the H1N1 breakout. (Also: several cabinet nominations, the canceled missile defense shield, and some of the fiscal responsibility messaging.)
