The education of our experience-free president

Our President is as naive as Albert Gore, Jr. He actually believed there were projects that could start in 60 days? That's what he says now. Do I believe him? His top priority was to fund his buddies and big-money supporters.

He realized too late that “there’s no such thing as shovel-ready projects” when it comes to public works

He also talks about how to manipulate the Republicans so it appears there was a bipartisan compromise. But not to really work with them. Just to manipulate them. And he learned that it's not enough to be supremely sure you are right. Wow. He is learning fast. Most of us learned that in grade school. Oh, by the way, top priority for Peter Baker of NYT was the new carpet and furniture in the Oval Office. That's how he leads his story based on his exclusive interview. NY Times

... He let himself look too much like “the same old tax-and-spend liberal Democrat.” He realized too late that “there’s no such thing as shovel-ready projects” when it comes to public works. Perhaps he should not have proposed tax breaks as part of his stimulus and instead “let the Republicans insist on the tax cuts” so it could be seen as a bipartisan compromise. Most of all, he has learned that, for all his anti-Washington rhetoric, he has to play by Washington rules if he wants to win in Washington. It is not enough to be supremely sure that he is right if no one else agrees with him. “Given how much stuff was coming at us,” Obama told me, “we probably spent much more time trying to get the policy right than trying to get the politics right. There is probably a perverse pride in my administration — and I take responsibility for this; this was blowing from the top — that we were going to do the right thing, even if short-term it was unpopular. And I think anybody who’s occupied this office has to remember that success is determined by an intersection in policy and politics and that you can’t be neglecting of marketing and P.R. and public opinion.” That presumes that what he did was the right thing, a matter of considerable debate. ...