One of the major difficulties of the Bush administration is that it seemed that they wouldn’t talk to anyone. Oh, I don’t mean the innocuous daily press briefings or the occasional sound bite as President Bush dashed off to a helicopter or another meeting of some sort. What I’m referring to is that regardless of the topic, the Bush administration never seemed to expound on or explain themselves. Time after time we would see the Democrats, the press or even the Republican members of Congress question, challenge or press an administration strategy and invariably, the administration would respond with something akin to “no comment” or “trust us.”
Enter Obama.
There aren’t many things I can give Obama credit for but one thing is undeniable; the man knows how to communicate. Unlike President Bush, President Obama is talking all the time about all the things he wants to do for America. Not only that but President Obama has numerous members of his administration out talking all the time about how they are doing.
As an example of the Obama administration “all communication, all the time,” look at these insights:
First, Joe Biden telling us “the economy was much worse than we expected!”
Second, We have Larry Summers telling us “the worse is not over:”
Onward, then, to the toughest economic challenge Summers faces today: the recession. Here, Summers turns sombre: “I don’t think the worst is over … It’s very likely that more jobs will be lost. It would not be surprising if GDP has not yet reached its low.
Things don’t sound so good if we listen to Biden and Summers. If we listen to these spokespeople for the Obama administration we may want to find a comfortable spot to start practicing our economic fetal position. But wait, let’s listen to President Obama:
“We’re moving in the right direction,” Obama said. “We must let it work the way it’s supposed to, with the understanding that in any recession, unemployment tends to recover more slowly than other measures of economic activity.”
Yes, Obama and his folks are talking all the time about all kinds of things. However, not only do they have a problem of conflicting with one another they even conflict with themselves:
The administration admitted it has been on a “learning curve” with the stimulus package, but that it has figured out how to spend some of the available billions more quickly.
Many tax cuts have already taken effect. But only $60.4 billion of the remaining $499 billion has been spent. Most of the money was always likely to be spent this summer, at the earliest, as departments wrestled with the increased workload and new requirements imposed by the bill.
The White House said it isn’t changing its goal of spending 70% of the funds by September 2010. But amid unemployment worries, the administration has been pressuring agencies to get some money out the door more quickly.
Huh, working as it should versus we need to spend quicker because unemployment is a problem. Well, which is it Mr. President?
