abrahamhyatt.com

-White House photo by Pete Souza-

Let’s get one thing straight: It’s unlikely that Obama’s stimulus bill will not pass; even though centrist Democrats and Republicans are balking at at the size of the $900 billion bill, there’s general consensus that they’ll be on board for the final vote. But passing the bill doesn’t mean Obama wins. In fact, it’s the opposite. Most importantly, he lost control over how the public perceives the stimulus package. An angry public now thinks – mistakenly in many cases – the bill is stuffed with pork spending and government waste. This is the first time the Obama team has ever lost control of the message to this degree.

One reason for that shift in public perception is that Obama has allowed Republicans to take over the debate. His attempts at bipartisan collaboration have backfired and the president is left trying to make conciliatory gestures on both sides of the aisle, none of which are helping to contradict the perception that he’s lost control. This week Obama hit the media circuit trying to shift public option. First he had to address the fact that the three of his potential nominees had tax problems, a major public relations gaff in and of itself. But underlying every conversation was the stimulus bill.

“I think that all of these were honest mistakes,” he said on ABC, referring to the nominees who failed to reveal their tax problems, “but ultimately there’s no excuse for them. [...] As I said, I think everybody makes mistakes. And I think I’ve been very clear of the fact that this was a bad mistake. I don’t think it was purposeful, but I think it was a mistake.

“We’re going to have some glitches, and I understand that that’s what people are going to focus on. And I’m focused on it because I don’t want glitches. We can’t afford glitches because, right now, what I should be spending time talking to you about is how we’re going to put three to four million people back to work. And so this is a self-induced injury that I’m angry about, and we’re going to make sure we get it fixed.”

You’d be hard pressed to find another president who has humbled himself to that degree. But is this really going to be enough? Next week you’re going to see his administration return to a well-proven campaign strategy: going state to state, showing politicians and the public who, when and how they’ll benefit from the stimulus bill. That effort will more than likely help ensure its passage. But as I wrote in the last Eatable Politics, the battles he lost over the last week are going to cost him a lot of political capital in the coming months.