This lack of experience is starting to show. On the major legislation considered this year — the stimulus, cap and trade, health care — the Obama White House has done little or nothing to set down markers, to provide guidance, to establish boundaries and no-go areas.

The administration could have insisted that the stimulus package concentrate spending in the next year. It didn’t. It could have insisted that the cap-and-trade bill generate the revenue that was supposed to underwrite health care. It didn’t. It could have decided either to seek a bipartisan health care bill or to insist that a Democratic bill be budget-neutral. It didn’t — and it still hasn’t made this basic policy choice.

Mo...

This lack of experience is starting to show. On the major legislation considered this year — the stimulus, cap and trade, health care — the Obama White House has done little or nothing to set down markers, to provide guidance, to establish boundaries and no-go areas.

The administration could have insisted that the stimulus package concentrate spending in the next year. It didn’t. It could have insisted that the cap-and-trade bill generate the revenue that was supposed to underwrite health care. It didn’t. It could have decided either to seek a bipartisan health care bill or to insist that a Democratic bill be budget-neutral. It didn’t — and it still hasn’t made this basic policy choice.

Most of Obama’s top White House staffers are politics operatives, not policy wonks. The one leading policy wonk on health care, Budget Director Peter Orszag, has either missed signals of danger or has failed to communicate their seriousness to his colleagues. On Feb. 25, Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf, a Democratic appointee, signaled in testimony to the Senate Finance Committee that the CBO would not credit health care bills with the budget savings the administration was promising.

Orszag, as a former CBO director himself, should have realized what this meant, which is that Democrats would have to shape their bills accordingly. They didn’t, and were stunned when the CBO came out in June and this month with estimates of little or no savings.

And someone in the White House should have taken note when 40 Blue Dog Democrats signed a letter dated July 9 warning that they wouldn’t vote for anything like the health care bills being considered in committee. Without those 40 votes, Democrats don’t have a majority in the House. It’s unusual for dissenting members of the majority to set down such a public marker. Predictably, they haven’t backed down so far, despite foot-stomping by Speaker Nancy Pelosi and a chat session with Obama.

Obama’s July 22 news conference was intended to rally support for the Democrats’ health care bills. It didn’t. The president eschewed serious arguments and rattled off campaign-type talking points. Those use...

And someone in the White House should have taken note when 40 Blue Dog Democrats signed a letter dated July 9 warning that they wouldn’t vote for anything like the health care bills being considered in committee. Without those 40 votes, Democrats don’t have a majority in the House. It’s unusual for dissenting members of the majority to set down such a public marker. Predictably, they haven’t backed down so far, despite foot-stomping by Speaker Nancy Pelosi and a chat session with Obama.

Obama’s July 22 news conference was intended to rally support for the Democrats’ health care bills. It didn’t. The president eschewed serious arguments and rattled off campaign-type talking points. Those used to be enough to elicit cheers from enthusiastic audiences in Iowa and Virginia.

But aura can only take you so far, particularly when you diminish it by disrespecting the Cambridge police department. Being president means being more than commenter-in-chief. You need to know how to legislate. You need not just aura but argument.

Michael Barone, The Examiner’s senior political analyst, can be contacted at mbarone@washingtonexaminer.com. His columns appear Wednesday and Sunday, and his stories and blog posts appear on ExaminerPolitics.com.

It's starting to look more and more like McCain took a dive. All of the candidates, with the exception of Obama, knew damned well what was coming up and didn't want to be in the Captain's seat when the Ship hits the Iceberg. Obama, the poor bastard, has been set up like a pin in the bowling alley.

I saw something akin to this take place back in the early 1940s.

Alvin van Schoick, the Long Branch Village Idiot of his time, was bullshitted into believing he was running for President. He gave wonderful impassioned speeches before crowds who were in on the gag, laughing and peeing their pants as Alvin spoke into a Frying Pan, believing it to be a microphone. Every so often, someone would run u...

It's starting to look more and more like McCain took a dive. All of the candidates, with the exception of Obama, knew damned well what was coming up and didn't want to be in the Captain's seat when the Ship hits the Iceberg. Obama, the poor bastard, has been set up like a pin in the bowling alley.

I saw something akin to this take place back in the early 1940s.

Alvin van Schoick, the Long Branch Village Idiot of his time, was bullshitted into believing he was running for President. He gave wonderful impassioned speeches before crowds who were in on the gag, laughing and peeing their pants as Alvin spoke into a Frying Pan, believing it to be a microphone. Every so often, someone would run up, stand beside Alvin and read to him congratulatory "Telegrams" from the "Pope," the "King of England," "John Barrymore," etc.

Poor, pitiful Alvin was "Quasimodo," deafened, not by bells, but by the cruelty of those whom he believed to be his friends. Most tragic of all, there was no Esmeralda to take withered flowers from a broken crystal vase and press them to her heart.