The Good, The Bad & The Ugly: Two Weeks In

President Obama, being on Day 17 of his presidency, is wrapping up his second full week in the Oval Office. It's time for some GBU (Good, Bad & Ugly.)

The Good
Energy efficiency regulations.

• The Energy Department is under orders to develop stricter efficiency standards for florescent light bulbs and reflector bulbs, saving businesses and households as much as $67 billion over the next 30 years. Congress has ordered the phasing out of the traditional incandescent light bulb by 2014.

Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.

• This was a slam-dunk for Obama and a giant victory for women and labor fairness overall.

Guantanamo Bay.

• Closure of this detention facility was a key campaign promise. Note it is in the "ugly" section, too.

SCHIP signed into law.

• This is considered a "down payment" on Universal Health Care, which has taken a hit this week with the sudden lack of a visible HHS Secretary or "Health Czar."

Faith-based initiatives.

• I think this is great. Obama is being criticized here for "continuing Bush era policies," but I also think faith-based initiatives were one of the good things Bush supported. (I think it smells more like Big Daddy Bush than Jr.) But, more importantly, I think a lot of Obama's social platform will need to be carried out through the faith community. Everything from civil rights to black men "pulling up their pants," as Obama has called for, stands the greatest chance of entering the character of Americans when conveyed through peer groups, and reinforced by personal beliefs. Strengthening faith based initiatives while supporting strict separation from the legislative process is a golden example of what is right about America.

De-militarizing Iraqi diplomacy.

• On the outside this looks like a nasty dis of Gen. Anthony C. Zinni, the former CentComm Commander. I think it's not, and I think Zinni knows that. Afghanistan's chief diplomat and the National Security Adviser are both retired Generals; giving Iraqi diplomacy to the General who oversaw the invasion of Iraq would be an almost colonial mentality.

Sending Biden to European power pow-wow.

• This type of conference is right up Joe Biden's alley. His foreign policy and security expertise will shine at the security conference. Hillary Clinton has already paved the road for Biden with her love-fest with German and British foreign minsters this week. And Biden is picking up an entourage heavy with State Dept. and Pentagon big-wigs as his amen chorus. Note that I think Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden genuinely like each other, which also means full court press can be put on this meeting. Biden will be lobbying European and Middle East power brokers to get on board with US-created international security agreements and broadcasting the Administration's increased commitments in Afghanistan. This should be Biden in his element.

Handing China to the State Department (i.e.: listening to Robert Gates.)

• While Obama has not said anything explicit on this, the State Department announcing that Secretary Clinton's first overseas tour will be of Japan, South Korea, China and Indonesia makes it fairly clear that the "China file" has been handed back to the State Department, rather than Treasury, which makes almost no sense anyway. Richard Nixon must be rolling in his grave. Secretary Gates has been very vocal in his support for de-militarization of diplomacy, and in her first townhall at the State Dept. yesterday, Secretary Clinton addressed this as well as an issue that State and Defense are actively reviewing, with an eye toward transitioning all diplomatic issues back to State. No doubt, Clinton capitalized on Secretary Geithner's contrition over tax problems to make the China grab, but it was an appropriate one.

The Bad
1st broken campaign promise, twice.

• During his campaign, Obama promised legislation that made it to his desk would get, "Sunlight before signing," and pledged that all legislation would get five days on the White House website for public comment before he signed them into law. The two laws the president has signed so far, the Ledbetter Act and SCHIP never appeared on the White Hosue website until they became laws, and he signed the Ledbetter Act two days after it was passed, and signed SCHIP into law two hours after it was passed. So far, President Obama's record on this is 0%, or an F-.

Infighting between Rahm Emmanuel & House leadership.

• Huffington Post claims that Rahm Emmanuel threw House Speaker "under the bus" on the stimulus bill. With a known past of hostility between Emmanuel and Pelosi, and Emmanuel's heavy handed style already getting press, I think it is in poor form to let this kind of bickering get any more air. Nancy Pelosi is already mending fences, taking a placating tone, and Rahm should follow suit. It's below a White House Chief of Staff to let personal disagreements complicate an already complicated situation, and it reflects on the President. Very nasty.

Tax evading friends making the President look bad.

• Hilda Solis pops up as another Obama nominee with tax problems, making four so far high profile administration picks with legal-financial problems. I'll agree with the LA Times who say it makes the Obama vetting operation look sloppy. Obama is losing credibility over these snafus.

Making cocky comments about winning, when you're not.

• This was a desperate attempt to bully the GOP, they didn't take the bait, and they are not scared. It backfired, bad. Even when he said it, at a time when it looked like the stimulus bill was going to sail through, it sounded petulant.

Supporting the digital transition delay.

• Ug. This is crap on a crap cracker. First of all, the government should be giving away those stupid converter boxes. I've worked in the communications industry, I know what the cost of those electronics really is, and it's a lot less than the money running the coupon program, a hell of a lot less. This delay is resistance to change, nothing more. Do they really think 6.5 million people who are supposedly unprepared for the transition accomplish in 4 months what they have failed to do in the two years this thing has been getting advertised and warned about? Some of the commercials make it seem like your survival is dependent on compliance with the transition. It has negative implications for everyone from the broadcasting companies to 911 dispatch.

The Ugly
Guantanamo Bay.

• Closing Guantanamo Bay is going to turn into a shit storm. The families of victims of 9/11 want and deserve closure and justice. The prisoners have rights. What do we do with them? Do we care what the international community thinks? Some of them are already escaping and disappearing. The Pentagon and Justice and State are already up to the elbows in red tape and disagreements over how to do it, and what it means. It's on The Good list, too, but it's going to get ugly, uglier, ugliest.

Stimulus Bill.

• Another shit storm. Obama has lost control of the dialog, something he was rarely foolish enough to allow during his presidential campaign. He has now resorted to a good cop - bad cop routine, except he is both cops. This legislation is a litmus test of his true "mandate," and while I'm thinking we will get some kind of bill passed, it could come out very bad for Obama. It's too bad, but it has become the rallying point for the GOP, who are rising to the occasion. The sooner this is over, the sooner he can sign a huge spending bill and get to work spinning the benefits. He also runs the risk of looking like he is running a Rove-style campaign in the Senate for this, particularly if he continues to meet with GOP lawmakers and then telling them essentially to shove it. Ugly.

Embryonic Stem Cell Research.

• Of course, embryos will get the ultra-right fired up. Obama is going to rescind the Bush administration's ban on embryonic stem cell research, and while this is an old battle, it will get some new fire. Just what we needed.

Lobbyist rules.

• I applaud the decision by President Obama to try to curtail, with policy, the influence of lobbyists in Washington. It addressed accountability, transparency and broadens constituencies, which is usually good. However, it is opening a huge can of worms that could go very, very wrong. I've already said I think Obama showed open hypocrisy in announcing lobbying rules and a nominee with a waiver from those rules at the same time. I wonder if the amount of spin control this thing is going to take will be worth it in the long run. Even if we just straight up banned lobbyists, people would still find a way. This was something John McCain wanted to do, too, and I questioned it as a time consuming project that would ultimately either fail or simply change the definition of lobbying.

Admitting a mistake.

• Even though I criticized Obama for flip-flopping on his support for Tom Daschle as HHS Secretary, admitting he "screwed up" is pretty good. It is a break with tradition for certain; American presidents usually only admit they were wrong prior to getting fired. And it was certainly a refreshing break from the Bush era, wherein the entire Executive was nearly deified. But it also opens a huge can of worms. This is not by far the first time Obama has taken fire for his taste in political friends. I won't engage in any opining about them here. I'll just leave it at: the president has opened the door for future expectations of an apology. It could undermine him badly.