Indeed, change has come to the White House. Our President is able to admit to mistakes:
Barack
Obama, the US president, has admited he made a “mistake” following the
withdrawal of his nominee for US health secretary amid a controversy
over unpaid taxes.“I screwed up”, he told NBC news on Tuesday after Tom Daschle,
…
whom the US president also wanted as White House health “czar”,
withdrew his nomination following reports he had not paid $140,000 in
taxes
Obama on Tuesday took
responsibility for the errors, telling NBC news he had failed to
anticipate the problem and should ”own up to my mistake”.“I
don’t want to send a message to the American people that there are two
sets of standards, one for powerful people, and one for ordinary folks
who are working every day and paying their taxes,” Obama later told CNN.
That’s just really refreshing to hear. It took President Bush almost eight years to get to the same point, finally admitting to mistakes with just a week left in office:
President Bush, who four years ago couldn’t identify a single mistake
by his administration, on Monday ticked off a list of its shortcomings
and disappointments, ranging from failures to find weapons of mass
destruction in Iraq to its oft-criticized response to Hurricane
Katrina.
A White House willing to admit to mistakes is one that will be more accountable. This sets the tone for the next eight years. We will hold Obama to that standard.
As for President Bush, I do not mean to pile on – I am one of the few liberal bloggers to give him kudos for what he did right.
