O is for ownership, Obama

In his Washington Post column yesterday, Michael Gerson, an alumnus of the George W. Bush administration, had quite a description of the fallout the Obama administration has created with the thus-far-disastrous healthcare reform debate .

"Their proposal has divided Democrats while uniting Republicans, returned American politics to well-worn ideological ruts, employed legislative tactics that smack of corruption, squandered the president's public standing, lowered public regard for Congress to French revolutionary levels, sucked the oxygen from other agenda items, reengaged the abortion battle, produced freaks and prodigies of nature such as a Republican senator from Massachusetts, raised questions about the continued governability of America and caused the White House chief of staff to distance himself from the president's ambitions," wrote Gerson.

Sure, this comes as a partisan blast, but the reality is, much of this mouthful is true. The Obama presidency is in trouble, and stories of tension and infighting among top staff are complicating matters as the severely divided Democratic Party tries to send healthcare reform to the end zone in the coming weeks.
 
But as I wrote in my column this week, focusing our attention on whether senior adviser David Axelrod is blinded by his admiration for President Obama, or whether Rahm Emanuel and his F-words are to blame, is a waste of time. So is the larger question of which one of the two are to blame for Obama's plunge in popularity and the political problems he and his party are facing after a year of reaching high and falling flat.
 
President Obama has himself to thank or blame for any decision coming out of the White House. No, he cannot control the Congress, but Axelrod and Emanuel are merely advisers and in the end Obama owns the decisions he has made and the politically difficult consequences that resulted from them.
 

CAN DEMS PASS HEALTH REFORM WITHOUT THE PRO-LIFERS? Ask A.B. returns Tuesday, March 16. Please join my weekly video Q&A by sending your question and comments to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Thank you.