Just published: Presidential Leadership and the Creation of the American Era by Joseph S. Nye.
Obama’s Katrina Moment
Todd Eberly: “What happened to Bush between Election Day 2004 and the Democratic victories in the 2006 election is a cautionary tale that the Obama Administration would do well to consider… Bush had presented himself as a competent manager and a reliable leader – a stark contrast to Kerry. That image collapsed in spectacular fashion in latter half of 2005.”
“Like Bush, Obama was reelected by the same 51% bare majority. Obama’s narrow popular vote victory was bolstered by a more substantial Electoral College victory. Like Bush, Obama was rejected by 49% of the electorate and exit polls showed a majority of voters favored full or partial repeal of the President’s signature legislative accomplishment – health care reform. Much like the Bush 2004 strategy, the Obama campaign spent millions defining Mitt Romney as an unfit leader. Obama was portrayed as the reliable and competent manager who understood there was a positive role for government to play in improving people’s lives. If Obama is not careful, that image will collapse in spectacular fashion.”
Rice in Line to be National Security Adviser
“Insiders with ties to the Obama administration tell The Cable that U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice has become the heir apparent to National Security Advisor Tom Donilon — a post at the epicenter of foreign-policy decision making and arguably more influential than secretary of state, a job for which she withdrew her candidacy last fall amid severe political pressure.”
Said one source: “It’s definitely happening.”
The Obama Paradox
New York Times: “Thwarted on Capitol Hill, stymied in the Middle East and now beset by scandal, President Obama has reached a point just six months after a heady re-election where the second term he had hoped for has collided with the second term he actually has.”
“The challenges underscore a paradox about the 44th president. He presides over a government that to critics appears ever more intrusive, dictating health care choices, playing politics with the Internal Revenue Service and snooping into journalists’ phone records. Yet at times, Mr. Obama comes across as something of a bystander occupying the most powerful office in the world, buffeted by partisanship and forces beyond his control.”
What the Benghazi Emails Show
The Week highlights five things we learned from last night’s White House email dump.
McAuliffe Inches Ahead in Virginia
A new Qunnipiac poll in Virginia finds Terry McAuliffe (D) leading Ken Cuccinelli (R) in the race for governor by five points, 43% to 38%.
Said pollster Peter Brown: “The governor’s race remains tight and could well go all the way to November as a close contest. The 17 percent of voters who say they are undecided will determine the Commonwealth’s next governor. At this point neither man seems to have much of an edge.”
Robertson Says Wife of Cheating Husband Should be Grateful
Responding to a question from a viewer concerned about her cheating husband, Pat Robertson said that married men “have a tendency to wander” and it is the spurned wife’s job “to focus on the positive and make sure the home is so enticing, he doesn’t want to stray,” the Huffington Post reports.
Said Robertson: “Does he provide a home for you to live in. Does he provide food for you to eat? Does he provide clothes for you to wear? Is he nice to the children… Is he handsome?”
Will the GOP Overplay Their Hand?
First Read points out there a danger for Republicans in pushing the IRS scandal too hard.
“Already, the Benghazi talking-point emails don’t reveal the political conspiracy that many Republicans and conservatives had openly theorized, and they also reveal that Susan Rice — whose reputation was dragged through the mud — was a relatively innocent victim (though no one likes to be exposed as someone who was simply following a set of talking points about which they had little input). What’s more, the Benghazi emails have all come down to State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland’s concerns. Were they simply about trying not to hinder the investigation into the Islamic extremists in the attack (as Democrats say)? Or were they about trying to clean the State Department’s hands (as Republicans allege)?”
Greg Sargent: “The key thing to keep in mind is it’s an open question whether the GOP base will let Republicans ‘pace themselves.'”
Quote of the Day
“I’m not advocating everyone go out and run around with no clothes on and smoke pot. I’m not a libertarian. I’m a libertarian Republican. I’m a constitutional conservative.”
— Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), quoted by the Daily Beast, while speaking to a group of social conservatives.
Why it Might Be Hard for Obama to Get Beyond Scandals
Washington Post: “The most corrosive political scandals are the ones that feed a preexisting story line — which is why the White House could have difficulty putting the current ones behind it any time soon. In the view of President Obama’s adversaries, recent revelations add evidence to arguments that they have been making about the president all along: that he would do or say whatever it took to get reelected; that his is a philosophy of rampant, invasive big government; that he has not acted within the constraints of the Constitution; that he regards those who oppose him with contempt.”
The Week: Have the scandals already reached their peak?
Obama Net Worth Revealed
Newly released federal financial disclosure forms show that President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama held assets last year worth between $1.8 million and $6.8 million, the AP reports.
The president also collected between $250,000 and $2.1 million in royalties on his three best-sellers: Dreams From My Father, The Audacity of Hope and a children’s book, Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters.
Did Obama Stop the Bleeding?
“In recent days, Democratic strategists have all but begged President Obama to take control of a deepening public relations disaster that threatens to derail his second-term agenda,” Politico reports.
“On Wednesday evening, Obama did just that. The White House released 100 pages of emails and documents showing the evolution of the administration’s talking points about the Benghazi attack. Just over an hour later, Obama himself came to the podium to announce that he’d directed his Treasury secretary to request the resignation of the acting IRS commissioner — and had gotten it.”
“So did two decisive actions on one rapid-fire news night stop the bleeding?”
Weiner Struggles to Assemble Campaign Team
As former Rep. Anthony Weiner “prepares to roll out a long-shot bid for mayor, possibly as soon as next week, he is finding it difficult to attract prominent operatives, interviews suggest,” the New York Times reports.
“Recruiting top talent is a perennial challenge in politics, but Mr. Weiner faces daunting obstacles.”
“He is considering an unusually late entry into a race that is already filled with Democrats who long ago snapped up big-name campaign directors. He is known as an excessively demanding, at times confrontational boss. And he is still recovering from an embarrassing scandal, during which he misled the public and his own staff about whether he had sent sexually explicit messages and graphic images to women he had met online.”
Obama Picks New IRS Chief
President Obama named the current controller of the White House budget office, Daniel Werfel, acting commissioner of the IRS, the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The appointment is effective Wednesday, May 22. Mr. Werfel will replace Steven Miller, who resigned under pressure as acting commissioner on Wednesday in the midst of a controversy over IRS targeting of tea-party and other conservative groups.”
New York Times: “As one of the top officials at the budget office, Mr. Werfel has been
the administration’s point man on one of the thorniest political
problems in the last six months: the across-the-board spending cuts
known as sequestration.”
Obama Fires IRS Commissioner
President Obama announced that Treasury Secretary Jack Lew asked for and accepted the resignation of acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller over the targeting of conservative political groups seeking tax exempt status.
Obama pledged to put new safeguards and work with Congress in its oversight role in response to the scandal noting that “the good news is it’s fixable.”
E-Mails Show Jostling Over Talking Points on Benghazi
More than 100 pages of e-mails released by the White House “reveal intensive jostling between the C.I.A. and the State Department over the government’s official ‘talking points‘ in the aftermath of last September’s attacks in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans,” the New York Times reports.
“The White House released the e-mails to reporters after Republicans seized on snippets of the correspondence that became public last Friday to suggest that President Obama’s staff had been complicit in trying to alter the talking points used by Susan E. Rice, the ambassador to the United Nations, in the days after the attacks.”
Romney Adds a Utah Home
Mitt Romney is building a new home in Utah, the Deseret News reports.
“The two-time GOP presidential candidate and former Massachusetts governor plans to split his time ‘pretty evenly’ between Salt Lake City and his homes in San Diego and a resort community in New Hampshire. He will also spend time in his Boston apartment, located at his son Tagg’s home there.”
IRS Points Finger at Two Rogue Employees
The IRS has pinpointed two “rogue” employees in the agency’s Cincinnati office as being principally responsible for “overly aggressive” handling of Tea Party requests for tax-exempt status over the past two years, CNN reports.
