Tom Daschle Matter: Obama Misses a Moment

Maybe President Obama doesn’t have time these days to sit around and watch the American Movie Classics (AMC) channel, or perhaps Netflix is having a hard delivering Obama his weekly allotment of DVDs. Whatever the situation, President Obama just missed a giant opportunity.

Of course Tom Daschle needed to withdraw his name. He’s a smart guy. A loyal guy. And he took one for the team. But what a great moment it would have been up at the White House if, just before Robert Gibbs appeared in the briefing room today, President Obama would have gone to the podium unannounced:

“Stand back, Robert. I got this one.” At which point Obama could have launched into his best Michael Douglas/Andrew Shepherd/“An American President” impersonation, ripped up the Daschle withdrawal letter in front of the cameras and looked right into the camera and said:

“Tom Daschle screwed up. He knows it. I know it. The American people know it. Nobody’s perfect. I don’t know if Tom made innocent mistakes or not. In fact, I don’t care. Tom is the right guy for this job and even if we have a few bumps, a few fights on the Hill over this, the size and scope of the healthcare crisis facing this nation is such that we can’t just toss people overboard because they are imperfect. Imperfect Americans created this republic and imperfect people stormed the beaches at Normandy and won World War II. Tom Daschle is another one of those imperfect people and I need him to help me deliver to the American people what I promised I would deliver. My name is Barack Obama and I am the president!”