President Barack Obama

Having just wrapped up a round of radio interviews with stations around the country it looks like the proverbial “Is the honeymoon over?” story is gaining traction. The cumulative effect of a badly marketed (and some say badly devised) stimulus plan coupled with his nominees’ tax problems is that Barack Obama has used up a fair amount of his political capital in a few short weeks.

Of course Obama started with more political capital than any President since FDR so he’s still got plenty of it and his mea cupla yesterday (“I screwed up”) was the perfect antidote to the start-up troubles his Administration has faced. His admissions of mistakes coupled with his acceptance of responsibility is the kind of thing Americans have forgotten people in power actually do.

Remember George W Bush was famously unable to think of any mistakes he had made as President when asked  at televised prime-time news conference in April 2004 what his biggest error had been. And Bill Clinton “did not have sex with that woman.” In Japan executives resign in disgrace when their companies lose money and have to lay people off. In America passing the buck is a time-honored way to the top and failure (especially on Wall Street) is a surefire way to make a fortune.

So what a refreshing change for the President to fess up. But it won’t help keep the honeymoon alive if Obama doesn’t move quickly to restore voters’ faith in him and his party.

Democrats have rebounded by being the party of 1) competence and 2) the working man/woman. When several of Obama’s nominees are discovered not to have paid taxes it undercuts those central themes. If Tom Daschle really didn’t know about the taxes he owed, is he competent to reinvent America’s health care system? And how close to the working folk can Democrats and the Obama White House be when those unpaid taxes were for the use of a privately-supplied limo? That’s what Republicans are supposed to get caught doing!

Obama still enjoys a deep well of support with Americans even if polls show his approval ratings have now come down into the range of mere mortals. A majority of Americans want him to succeed because his failure will be their failure. But their patience is not unlimited.

The nominee problems (if they are over) will be quickly forgotten because right now — and for the foreseeable future — it’s the economy stupid. The stimulus bill (why didn’t they call it a jobs bill? PR 101 folks!) will take time to kick in so the next few weeks are more important to Obama than he may realize. If the American people begin to believe that Obama can NOT turn this economy around then the honeymoon will, at that point, be over. The clock is ticking.