By Marsha Mercer
Media General News Service
Media General News Service
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WASHINGTON – At their White House lunch, one of the former presidents told President-elect Barack Obama part of the reason he’s doing so well is that he doesn’t talk down to the American people.
“`You play it straight and just explain what it is that’s taking place,’” Obama said the former president told him. He didn’t say, recounting the remark on CNBC, which president.
To be sure, Obama’s ability to communicate with the people helped him win on Election Day. Polls show his support has grown since then. To be successful as president, though, he also will have to be straight with Congress.
That’s why his failure to consult key members of Congress about Leon Panetta as director of the Central Intelligence Agency was troubling. When news leaked that Panetta was Obama’s choice, the response from Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., incoming head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and others on the House and Senate intelligence committees, was frosty.
“I know nothing about this,” Feinstein said in a written statement, noting that she’d like an “intelligence professional” in the job. Panetta, 70, is a former House member from California and former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton.
Vice President-elect Joe Biden said not consulting Congress was “just a mistake.”
He and Obama rushed to reassure Feinstein, who put out another statement that they’d explained why they thought Panetta would be good in the job. Feinstein later said she looks forward to hearing from Panetta.
Obama wants to “rebrand” the CIA and “reset” intelligence activities, reversing the Bush policies on torture and rendition. The idea is that Panetta can lead the agency in a new direction, and his deputies will be seasoned in intelligence matters. Panetta has the savvy to get things done on Capitol Hill.
Fine, but bypassing Capitol Hill was an off-key note. Perception in our hyper-connected society is often reality, and the last thing Obama needs to be seen as high-handed and insular. Closed-door meetings doomed Hillary Clinton’s health care plan; secrecy poisoned Dick Cheney’s energy policy task force.
Polls show most people believe Obama can improve the economy, and he’s counting on public support.
“I have such confidence in the American people,” Obama told John Harwood on CNBC. “If you just play it straight with them, if you explain to them, here’s our challenge and here’s how we’ve gotten here and here’s where I think we need to go, then I have enormous confidence that the American people will rise up to the challenge.”
To his credit, Obama is fighting the bubble that surrounds presidents. He refuses to give up his BlackBerry. Keeping that link to the outside world will be important when Obama sets up his West Wing super-Cabinet -- senior advisers or czars who are supposed to supercede the bureaucracy.
The Panetta flap may turn out to be just a blip. Obama is reaching out, saying Democrats aren’t the only ones with good ideas. The $300 billion in tax cuts in his economic stimulus package is a political olive branch to congressional Republicans. Obama also indicated he’s in no hurry to pursue repeal of the Bush tax cuts for those making more than $250,000.
But Obama will have to find revenue somewhere. The country faces a stunning $1.2 trillion deficit this year even before his stimulus package. He says the federal deficit is so dire it cannot wait.
And, though every president tries, only so much waste and inefficiency can be pared from the federal budget. It’s hard to imagine a plan that lets the richest Americans keep their tax cuts when entitlements – particularly Social Security and Medicare – are on the table for cuts.
Obama said his task for his inauguration speech and in coming months “is simply to explain as honestly and truthfully as possible what the circumstances are, what the best ideas are … and if I do that, I feel confident that we’ll come together to solve these problems.”
And he’ll need to be straight with Congress.
(What do you think? Comment at mgwashington.com or e-mail mmercer@mediageneral.com.)
“`You play it straight and just explain what it is that’s taking place,’” Obama said the former president told him. He didn’t say, recounting the remark on CNBC, which president.
To be sure, Obama’s ability to communicate with the people helped him win on Election Day. Polls show his support has grown since then. To be successful as president, though, he also will have to be straight with Congress.
That’s why his failure to consult key members of Congress about Leon Panetta as director of the Central Intelligence Agency was troubling. When news leaked that Panetta was Obama’s choice, the response from Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., incoming head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and others on the House and Senate intelligence committees, was frosty.
“I know nothing about this,” Feinstein said in a written statement, noting that she’d like an “intelligence professional” in the job. Panetta, 70, is a former House member from California and former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton.
Vice President-elect Joe Biden said not consulting Congress was “just a mistake.”
He and Obama rushed to reassure Feinstein, who put out another statement that they’d explained why they thought Panetta would be good in the job. Feinstein later said she looks forward to hearing from Panetta.
Obama wants to “rebrand” the CIA and “reset” intelligence activities, reversing the Bush policies on torture and rendition. The idea is that Panetta can lead the agency in a new direction, and his deputies will be seasoned in intelligence matters. Panetta has the savvy to get things done on Capitol Hill.
Fine, but bypassing Capitol Hill was an off-key note. Perception in our hyper-connected society is often reality, and the last thing Obama needs to be seen as high-handed and insular. Closed-door meetings doomed Hillary Clinton’s health care plan; secrecy poisoned Dick Cheney’s energy policy task force.
Polls show most people believe Obama can improve the economy, and he’s counting on public support.
“I have such confidence in the American people,” Obama told John Harwood on CNBC. “If you just play it straight with them, if you explain to them, here’s our challenge and here’s how we’ve gotten here and here’s where I think we need to go, then I have enormous confidence that the American people will rise up to the challenge.”
To his credit, Obama is fighting the bubble that surrounds presidents. He refuses to give up his BlackBerry. Keeping that link to the outside world will be important when Obama sets up his West Wing super-Cabinet -- senior advisers or czars who are supposed to supercede the bureaucracy.
The Panetta flap may turn out to be just a blip. Obama is reaching out, saying Democrats aren’t the only ones with good ideas. The $300 billion in tax cuts in his economic stimulus package is a political olive branch to congressional Republicans. Obama also indicated he’s in no hurry to pursue repeal of the Bush tax cuts for those making more than $250,000.
But Obama will have to find revenue somewhere. The country faces a stunning $1.2 trillion deficit this year even before his stimulus package. He says the federal deficit is so dire it cannot wait.
And, though every president tries, only so much waste and inefficiency can be pared from the federal budget. It’s hard to imagine a plan that lets the richest Americans keep their tax cuts when entitlements – particularly Social Security and Medicare – are on the table for cuts.
Obama said his task for his inauguration speech and in coming months “is simply to explain as honestly and truthfully as possible what the circumstances are, what the best ideas are … and if I do that, I feel confident that we’ll come together to solve these problems.”
And he’ll need to be straight with Congress.
(What do you think? Comment at mgwashington.com or e-mail mmercer@mediageneral.com.)