President Obama makes mistakes

We’ve all heard of President Obama’s missteps with appointees.  It seems just like the rest of us, government leaders have money problems.  We all know the Tax Code is complex.  I took tax law and worked with the IRS’s Volunteer Income Taxpayer Assistance Program.  That’s not easy stuff, but is it appropriate to damn everyone and anyone who makes a tax mistake?  Tax law is extremely complex and the more money you make the more complex it gets.  This is not intended to absolve the President’s appointees of their errors, but to recognize that this is not as simple as forging a check or parking a car next to the fire hydrant. 

My guess is that it’s fairly common to make tax mistakes.  Like it or not, most of us have probably made them, although not a Tom Daschle level mistake.  

I am not convinced that we must condemn President Obama for erring in the selection process.  It seems that while we are all quick to cast the first stone, that we ought not to assume that we’re back to politics as usual.  We remember when George H.W. Bush nominated the inept Harriet Myers to the Supreme Court, a silly folly of political favoritism, but he rebounded with John Roberts and Samuel Alito.  Although these two justices were and are stalwart conservatives, they are also imminently qualified jurists.  Although the Court would have benefited from more centrist or more liberal justices, the Court was bolstered by intelligent, experienced selections. 

Obama now has an opportunity to go back to the drawing board and come up with several more qualified candidates.  It will be difficult to replace Daschle’s political power, but all is not lost.  Obama’s political capital will not take much of a hit and a future nominee stands no less chance of being confirmed.  Let’s just hope that this allows President Obama to come back with an equally impressive nominee.