Awesome guy filling in the chair (Pete Souza/White House)
President Obama answers the question about what he think's
his biggest mistake has been since taking office:
"When I think about what we've done well and what we haven't done well," the president said, "the mistake of my first term - couple of years - was thinking that this job was just about getting the policy right. And that's important. But the nature of this office is also to tell a story to the American people that gives them a sense of unity and purpose and optimism, especially during tough times."
Mr. Obama acknowledged the dissonance between others' perception of his strength as an expert orator, and his own.
"It's funny - when I ran, everybody said, well he can give a good speech but can he actually manage the job?" he said. "And in my first two years, I think the notion was, 'Well, he's been juggling and managing a lot of stuff, but where's the story that tells us where he's going?' And I think that was a legitimate criticism."
Legitimate criticism. That is indeed
his biggest mistake, as the title of my front page diary of two years ago opined.
The president's honest self reflection is being evidenced in his much more assertive and presidential stance since his September jobs speech. And now it seems his campaign team, no longer content to simply rest on their own sense of superiority, has caught up with him. Fighting for him like their lives depend on it, which is the way its supposed to be with political staff.
Nobody can prepare for the job of being president. Every president has to feel their way through the job and get the hang of it. But once properly comported in the office, and assisted by a loyal staff that is willing to the dirty, nasty, brutal work of politics, a president on the move is hard to stop. All the great presidents, however, understood that politics and policy go hand in hand. They are two sides of the same coin. There isn't "governing mode" and "campaigning mode." There is presidenting mode and its a combination of the two...relentlessly. This is especially true for a reform president.
I couldn't be more pleased with the president and how he's been handling things since last September. And I'm pleased that his staff have stepped their game up in the last two months and now appear to be in full war paint, as it should be. But on a personal level, a president who is willing to do what it takes, and who learns from mistakes and confronts them honestly, is certainly going to stand in good company when the histories are written.