My Mistake

Our new president has completed his second full week in office. And although he still enjoys approval ratings upwards of sixty percent, I'm guessing that he's glad to have day 14 behind him.

President Obama arranged to make himself available Tuesday for a series of interviews with the news anchors from the major broadcast television networks. The appearances were part of a plan to build support for his economic stimulus plan. He also wanted to highlight his ongoing bipartisan outreach efforts, illustrated by his choice of a Republican senator to fill the post of Commerce Secretary.

That was the plan when all that network airtime was scheduled.

The president did get to talk about his stimulus plan and his Commerce appointment. But only after he had to account for the withdrawal of two other major cabinet appointments due to their tax problems. And this came on the heals of the new Treasury Secretary and his tax mea culpa.

Mr. Obama acknowledged his embarrassment, and how these lapses in the vetting process could look to the Americans who voted for him to bring change to Washington.

"I screwed up," he said. The president said "I screwed up." Again and again, interview after interview, to be played again and again on various newscasts.

Observers have likened Mr. Obama's popularity and celebrity to that of a rock star. Even rock stars make mistakes. Will make mistakes. Guaranteed.

Leaders may be measured more by their performance in the face of failure than success. Can they admit error? Learn from their mistakes? Make corrections mid-course? Do they demonstrate the dynamic flexibility required to handle the unexpected?

In the continuum of unexpected presidential challenges, the tax problems of a few potential cabinet members won't seem like much down the road when compared to military incursions, natural disasters or environmental threats. But maybe Tuesday provided some insight into how this president will respond when the Next Big Thing lands unannounced on his desk.