Get It Together!

Pretty much one hundred days into the new administration and I keep waiting for the guy I voted for to actually show up and lead. That may be a little harsh, but so far I find the new administration to be deeply disappointing- middling at best, flailing at worst. I don't think Obama's incompetent per say- it's just that I have a sneaking suspicion that all that worry about his perceived lack of experience may be coming home to roost. On balance, it's not been bad- but there are tiny, tiny mistakes that are piling up and making the administration look bumfuddled. My pet peeves thus far:

1. The Stimulus Debacle: This was a blown opportunity right out of the gate. It was a huge tactical mistake to send the President down to Congress to stump for votes and it was an even bigger mistake just to get sucked into the bloated Democratic bill that Pelosi wanted. Stumping for votes made him look like a cheap pan-handler and letting Pelosi set the terms of the bill made him look weak.

2. The Bow: This is apples and oranges- but a perfect example of the tiny, rookie mistakes that just keep piling up. He bowed to the King of Saudi Arabia- on balance, not a major thing- but a silly mistake. Someone should have said 'Hey, you're the Leader of the Free World and you don't bow to nobody!' (Remember the big deal about this photo? That's what I'm talking about.)

3. Then yesterday brought news of this: the White House wanted to update the file photo of Air Force One and thus had a secret photo op planned over New York City. AF1 buzzed the City at heights of about 1500 feet or so and scared everyone absolutely shitless, for obvious reasons. Mayor Bloomberg is rightly apoplectic- as, to as a certain degree am I. I mean, WHY?

4. And just to top it all off, the pace of confirmations is criminally slow. Part of that is Congress' fault- but it's also again, symptomatic of an administration that should have hit the ground running, but is, instead, staggering its way towards something resembling a trot. HHS Nominee Kathleen Sebelius is expected to be confirmed today- but right now, in the middle of a public health emergency (Swine Flu), you probably don't want to know just how many Health Officials we don't have in place in the new administration.

All in all, I find myself more than a little disappointed. There's still potential for a turnaround, but people in D.C. need to get their shit together in a major way. These stupid blunders are piling up one on top of another and the Democrats in both Congress and the White House seem hell bent on handing everything back to the Republicans by default. And Republicans, well damn- they're not exactly fun, happy people and they're flailing around just as much. (The latest: immigrants are to blame for the Swine Flu. Yeah, cause Hispanics are gonna want to vote for the Party who thinks they're disease carriers.)

But to summate: Mr. President- GET IT TOGETHER!