Any serious survey of the Obama administration’s accomplishments and setbacks over the last year has to conclude that the administration is deeply in the red.
If current trends continue, this once mesmerizing Camelot-ish operation will be be seen in the history books as the presidential administration that — to distort slightly and inversely paraphrase Churchill — never have so many talented people managed to achieve so little with so much.
The problem, Clemons says, drawing on a FT article on the same topic, is that Obama has surrounded himself by an inner circle of just four, who are combative, not interested in policy, and who focus primarily on campaigning and power. This is at least as bad as Nixon was. Rahm Emmanuel in particular delights in being an asshole and alienating people. And Obama wonders why health care hasn’t passed?
And please, let’s have none of the rogue staffers excuse. Obama hired them. He knowns what they’re doing and clearly agrees with it. So, let’s be clear. The “core Chicago team” includes Obama too.
Clemons concludes:
Take action to fix the dysfunction of your office.
Otherwise, the Obama brand will be totally bust in the very near term.
Via AmericaBlog, who notes
And before any goes off on anonymous sources, Steve knows more power people in this town [DC] than anyone I know. If he’s writing this, it’s because he’s had 100 different people confirm to him that it’s true.