Myth of Machiavellian Brilliance

The latest Obama Administration dust-up with Fox News is instructive. The Old and New Media is perplexed about the whole affair, primarily because they are unable to clarify just what the White House strategy is. What are the Obami's goals? What would constitute victory in this little war?

But these are the wrong questions. That the Fox News gambit is a loser for the White House is well-nigh irrefutable. Fox News is gaining viewership at the expense of the White House's allies in the Media, and at the same time, those allies are compelled by the last shreds of journalistic ethics they retain to come to Fox's defense. Additionally, among the larger electorate, the stark contrast between the truly important issues, like unemployment, Afghanistan, and a nuclear Iran, and the Administration's obsession with a news organization, further depresses the President's already plummeting poll numbers.

So, what is so instructive about the situation? It is another instance where the Administration reveals that it is clueless about how to govern the country. Take the latest incident in the Fox News war. The Obami make the new Pay Czar available for press interviews, but stipulate that Fox News will not be allowed to participate. Now, if it was the Administration's intention to marginalize Fox News, then the smart play would have been to make the Pay Czar available to specifically selected Media reps that would not include Fox News. Instead, the Obami offers the interviews to the White House press pool as a group, which has an agreement among all the participants that there will be equal access to White House events.

In other words, the Administration put their Media allies in a situation where they would have to come to Fox's aid and refuse the interviews. The result? A stunning rebuke of the White House from Major Media that heretofore has been nothing short of nauseatingly obsequious.

Continue .....
That the Administration would put their own allies into such an untenable situation when there was a perfectly good alternative, indicates that this Administration is all but terminally amateurish.

Add this fiasco to the embarrassing failure to secure the Olympics for Chicago. There again, it was a failure that did not have to occur. Basic due diligence indicated that before sending the President with loud hoopla to Copenhagen, the Administration should send out a few Ambassadors to poll the Olympic committee members on Chicago's chances. That they didn't do even this minimal preparation bespeaks a naivete unprecedented in Presidential Administrations.

Other examples abound. The silly idea of having Doctors dress up in white coats for a White House photo op, (note to White House: Doctors now wear green fatigues instead of white coats); the stunning abandonment of missile defense without getting Russian concessions on Iranian sanctions; the decision to "put some daylight" between the US and Israel, thereby emboldening the hard-line Palestinians and dooming any chance whatsoever for peace talks; the attempt to defend the Administration's Afghanistan dithering by lying about the analytical and policy conclusions it had received from the Bush Administration (as if no one from the prior Administration would expose the lie); and the attacks on citizens protesting the Administration's policies.

And this only scratches the surface of the last few months. Early on this Administration decided to out-source to Congress the preparation of legislation on all of President Obama's most important objectives: the Stimulus, Cap and Trade, and Healthcare. Splintered, contentious, and beholden as it is to myriad interest groups, Congress is just not equipped to tackle hugely complex legislation like this without a strong Chief Executive leading the way. Instead, this Administration relegated the President to the role of Cheerleader in Chief, apparently thinking the President could thereby remain above the fray, unsullied by the nitty gritty of politics, and still get his major policy initiatives passed.

Unbelievable. Naivete and cluelessness, all in one Administration.

Part of the problem for the national Media commentariat is that it continues to believe the prime myth of this Administration, that it has a Machiavellian brilliance about it, moving public opinion where ever it wills. In fact, there is nothing brilliant about this Administration, Machiavellian or otherwise. It is just a bunch of typical Chicago politicians who have risen far beyond their capabilities.

But what's more, the Administration is stubbornly clueless about its own cluelessness. It believes in its non-existent brilliance, and thereby adds fatal hubris to its terminal ignorance.

There's a combination for you, hubris and ignorance. As a result, this country and the world are powder kegs waiting to explode, until we can get this Administration out of Washington and back to Chicago where it belongs.