White House Blues

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/04/AR2009020402835.html

EJ Dionne, who is rapidly emerging as a go to guy for getting the Obama message out (a Bob Novak of the left), has a good piece today on the highkacking of the stimulus debate. Everyone is carrying on about tiny pieces, republicans are disingenuous and allowed to get away with it, there is bipartisan support from governors, etc etc. But he had one anonymous white house quote I found really telling:

"We lost a week."

Remember Obama the campaign, where everything was about the long term strategy. As McCain won week after week, he kept slipping further and further behind. It really was a pretty remarkable feat in retrospect
Fast forward today and that quote makes me wonder if part of the problem is them getting caught up in the weekly wars. It explains the almost daily token issue - ones they themselves recognize are pretty inconsequential - that is thrown under the stimulus bus and the slavish devotion to at least one bipartisan photo op every few days. People don't need the president making the rounds talking about how he has changed the process, they need a solution.