Obama Dodges a Bullet: Daschle Steps Down

Of all the choices that President Obama has made for his leadership team, the one that troubled many the most was Tom Daschle for Health and Human Services. Former Senator Daschle is, by all accounts, likeable, intelligent, reasonable and knowledgeable. The trouble is that this is not exactly enough for the position he was nominated for. In fact, it was not exactly enough for the position he previously had in the Senate as Minority Leader. There is something about Daschle that comes up short somewhere between being a good person and being an effective leader. For years he seemed to be always just a tad short of what was needed for effective opposition to a really destructive Republican control of Washington.

As one who has worked out of the countries, I can at least appreciate that Geithner might have not understood fully his tax liability as the laws are at least more complicated than if one works in the US and is paid by a US employer. I understand that the Killifer situation was also minor. Daschle, on the other hand, had a problem that was neither understandable or minor. Whatever it was within him or his system of managing life that caused him to think that his delinquent taxes would not be a problem somewhere in his political life might be exactly that thing that always kept him short of effective, while still being quite a nice guy.

President Obama will now be free to choose someone who is more clearly capable of leading what will be a controversial, but extremely important position as we go into the debates on how to solve the national health care crisis in all its dimensions. No matter who is HHS Secretary, it will have to be the President who carries the ball on the debate with the vested medical and financial interests who will resist constructive change that would provide for health insurance and care to be universal.

President Obama dodged a bullet on this one. Unfortunately he was the one who pulled the trigger on the gun. Next time, it can be hoped, metaphorically, that he hits the target.