Four Political Disasters for Pres. Obama, and The Media’s Role

28 May, 2010 by Kathleen McKinley

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Whenever an administration wants to bury a story, they put it out on a Friday. They hope it will be old news by Monday when people start to pay attention again. The administation got lucky on the Sestak report. It’s also a holiday weekend.

It’s no wonder they want it buried:

The White House asked former President Bill Clinton to talk to Rep. Joe Sestak about the possibility of obtaining a senior position in the Obama administration if he would drop out of the Democratic primary race against establishment-backed Sen. Arlen Specter…

How is this not criminal? The White House says it’s because the job was unpaid. I wondered why Sestak wouldn’t just say what job he had been offered when he was willing to say he had been offered one. Was it to keep their stories straight?

Major Garret at Fox News reports the U.S code this involves:

The U.S. code that critics say the Sestak job offer may have violated states: “Whoever, directly or indirectly, promises any employment, position, compensation…appointment…provided for or made possible in whole or in part by any Act of Congress…to any person as consideration, favor, or reward for any political activity…or in connection with any primary election …shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.”

You decide if the White House violated this code.

But this isn’t the only time this White House has offered a job to a candidate not to run. You haven’t heard about it? That’s because the Denver Post reported on it once back in September, and then went dark on it.

Newsbusters:

A Democrat candidate running against a Senate incumbent is offered a job by the White House as an incentive to drop out of the primary race. Sounds like the Joe Sestak scandal in which he alleged that someone in the White House offered him a job in order to drop out of the race against the incumbent senator from Pennsylvania, Arlen Specter. Right? Well, yes. However, this also perfectly describes another similar scandal in which it is alleged that the White House offered a job to Andrew Romanoff (photo) in order to drop out of the primary race for the senate from Colorado against incumbent Michael Bennet. And the amazing thing about this scandal is that the newspaper that broke it has since remained completely silent on any further reporting.

Read an excerpt from the original story from the Denver Post at the link. Very curious indeed.

Peggy Noonan, a conservative that was wooed by Obama, had this to say about his political disasters:

I don’t see how the president’s position and popularity can survive the oil spill. This is his third political disaster in his first 18 months in office. And they were all, as they say, unforced errors, meaning they were shaped by the president’s political judgment and instincts.

The president, in my view, continues to govern in a way that suggests he is chronically detached from the central and immediate concerns of his countrymen.

And those three political disasters don’t include the Sestak report. But there is indeed a way for Obama to survive this. He can survive it with a willing media. If the media can put it’s professionalism before it’s poltics, then maybe he won’t. But will they be willing to do that? This was their guy after all. Even the President himself joked that many in the media had covered him, but all had voted for him.

I guess we shall see if the media can step up to the plate and do it’s job, or become just mouthpiece for this White House, letting stories go dark, and waiting for candidates themselves to report unethical behavior.