by Michael Goldfarb
The Weekly Standard
December 29, 2009
Politico’s Carol E. Lee has an interesting story today on President Obama’s “by-now familiar pattern…for dealing with unexpected problems.” As best we can figure, the Obama damage control strategy consists of these 5 easy steps:
Step 1: Deny seriousness of issue.
Step 2: Deny any admin responibility/failure.
Step 3: Have spokespeople convey O’s feelings to public.
Step 4: Blame Bush admin.
Step 5: Concede the issue days later.
Of course, it’s very important that you understand the signals to know which step we’re at. For example, “Obama heading to the golf course, [Cato Institute fellow Benjamin] Friedman said, ‘signals that it’s not a crisis, and he’s the president and he has a lot of things to do and this is just one of them.'” Maybe it’s when the president goes bowling that you’re supposed to find immediate shelter and duck tape the windows.
