What is the Real White House Position?

Posted on 01/31/2010 at 11:25 am by Bob Cesca

Jon Cohn reports some positive news:

For all of the mixed messages of the last week, sources say that President Obama himself remains absolutely committed to pursuing comprehensive reform–more so, in fact, than many of his political advisers. And if you’ve listened to him talk about it publicly, particularly in his Tampa speech the day after the State of the Union, he certainly sounds determined not to give up–perhaps because so much of Washington thinks he should.

The White House, then, needs to do a better job at presenting a unified front. Rahm Emanuel undermining the president’s approach — whether as a matter of strategy or stupidity — is only succeeding in sending mixed messages. Not a very smart way to whip votes in the House.

This entry was posted in Healthcare and tagged , , . Bookmark the permalink.
  • roxsteady

    I’ve attached a link to an article Greg Sargent had on the plumline. It appears that the Dems are basically going stealth right now, working quietly on passing the bills and using reconciliation. They are intentionally not saying much in public. They expect to have the process going forward done by the end of this week. Perhaps Rahm should just go stealth too!http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-na-healthcare-strategy31-2010jan31,0,4131123.story

  • jhw22

    As much as I hate to blame people for stuff that’s “reported” that I don’t hear directly, I have to say that the only major failing of the administration, in my opinion, has been their lack of message-control. IF Rahm is going off message, then the WH needs to come out quickly and correct it. When they don’t they allow so much speculation and assumptions of “test balloons”. Geez, with all of the test balloons they have been assumed to have used, we wouldn’t be able to see the sun.I think messaging has failed them on health (they could have reminded Americans that we DO have death panels and they’re called claims departments), they could have explained their reasoning for allowing DADT to be handled through Congress so it sticks better than an Executive Order, they could have explained the deficit pay down in ways liberals would be begging for deficit pay downs. I think Obama nails the message most of the time. But, for the most part, everyone else seems to come out defensive. They need to OWN their messaging and ram it down reporter’s throats.Jennifer

  • http://www.osborneink.com Matt Osborne

    Bob, I’m not convinced there’s a “mixed message” from Emanuel. My argument here.

  • ec

    This isn’t the first time that Rahm has stepped in it. He is a loose cannon and not in the good way that we were promised.

  • eljefejeff

    I’m as fed up with Rahm as anyone, but is it possible he’s really the one responsible for getting things done? People seem to forget that except for health care, 2009 was a highly successful year for congress and the administration.http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122436116http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/29/AR2010012902516.html... See More

  • roxsteady

    I’m with Jennifer on they’re need to ram their message down reporters throats. The press doesn’t seem to realize that what Obama also demonstrated in his dismanteling of the Republicans on Friday is that, he exposed the media’s complicity in pushing GOP talking points instead of simply fact checking them in real time as he’d just done. Each time the questions were littered with talking points, the President pointed them out, refuted them with the facts and basically stated that this is why they don’t have credibility with him or the country. I think that’s called journalism?

  • caribbeanobserver

    Yeah, but we are getting all bent and out of shape because of speculation, or some-one said that some-one else said. In point of fact no-one really knows what Rahm said. Every word that is uttered may not necessarily be of some major consequence. Lots of things are said sarcastically, off the cuff, and even nonsensically or mysteriously, but unfortunately the MSM must have daily ‘news’ which they exaggerate or take out of context, to make the story, then enforce..hence pushing the anchors, pundits and public’s buttons.

  • jhw22

    @Caribbean: I agree 100%. I refuse to jump off a cliff based on anonymous or non-quote or off-camera statements. Many times, if I see the interview on camera I have a different take-away. I don’t know how many times I’ve watched Gibbs give his press briefing and I hear a completely different version out of the press. I especially hate when the press ask the same damn questions over and over until Gibbs says something they can morph into their version of what they planned on him saying.That being said, I do wish the WH would do a better job of getting in front of and correcting the BS. They have so many tools and don’t utilize them enough.Jennifer