[While I’m mostly staying away from politics over Christmas break, here are some thoughts on the White House reaction to the attempted bombing of the Detroit flight last week. ]
A lot of the things that presidents have to do are hard. That is all the more reason why they should do the easy stuff well. Handling an incident like the Christmas bombing is something they teach in White House management 101. The easy part is managing your response to the news and making sure you get the optics right. The hard part is the policy: figuring out what went wrong, taking the right steps to address the problem, and pressing on with your strategic vision of how to deal with the threat. The problem for the White House at this point is that when you fluff the easy part, the public starts to wonder if you have what it takes to do the hard part of the job.
When something bad happens, the people want to hear that the President is as concerned as they are, and that he is determined to do everything possible to fix whatever went wrong. He doesn’t have to have all the answers; he just has to show that he plans to get them — and that his priority in a case like this is the public safety, not the reputations or well being of bureaucrats and cabinet officers. The President needs to get on the public’s side of the issue: he’s upset, and he’s not going to rest until he has all the answers. He tasks someone specific with a thorough no-holds-barred investigation about what went wrong, and promises to take all necessary steps to ensure the public safety.
That’s the necessary business at hand; the bigger the problem the more august and confidence-inspiring the investigator (or panel) should be. You can, by the way, ask a Republican to carry out the investigation. Then, reassurances given, the President goes on to do something this President is very good at: educating the public about what has happened and what it means. You put the incident in context, relate it to your quest of broader objectives and your overall strategy.
What the White House seems to be missing is that this sort of moment is an opportunity to connect with the public while its attention is focused and to get out the message about this administration’s approach to the terrorism threat. In particular, it’s a chance to connect with women. He’s lost the angry white male vote — not that he ever had much of it. His danger is that he’ll lose the soccer moms: voters who like a lot of what this President stands for but who are worried about security and worried about debt.
Fumbling around on something like this hurts you twice. First, there’s the damage done when you appear out of touch or defensive, subtly reinforcing the narrative that you aren’t good at this part of the job. Second, and perhaps more important in the long run, there’s the cost of the missed opportunity. You had a chance to connect with the people and reinforce your basic messages, and you didn’t do it.
The one thing that is certain about presidencies is that unexpected things happen. This White House in many ways has been a surprisingly competent operation, especially for a first year team. But the repeated failure to seize the initiative in the face of the unexpected is a serious weakness, and it’s one that needs fixing, fast.