[classicman]

Change we cannot and do not believe in
This is not the kind of change Obama promised us in 2008.

When Barack Obama was running for the Democratic nomination last year and then for the presidency in the fall, one of the most attractive things about his candidacy was his promise of change that we all could believe in.

He campaigned on a promise of change that would mean no more cozy lobbyists-in-government schemes, no more ethically-challenged appointees ignoring laws that apply to everyone else.

Two weeks into the Obama presidency, we like his campaign better than his administration. While Mr. Obama has set the right tone for approaching the monumentally hard work ahead of this government and while some of his appointments are outstanding, others were either badly botched or reflect a half-hearted commitment to the change principle central to his ballot-box success last fall. Consider:

His nominee for treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, failed to pay $35,000 in self-employment taxes while working for the International Monetary Fund, and did so only after the president-elect made his decision to nominate Geithner for treasury secretary. Mr. Geithner's contention he did not realize he owed the taxes and was not prompted to report them by his tax preparation software strains the imagination at best and sounds more like a man caught in a lamentably lame lie.

His nominee for deputy secretary of defense, William Lynn, is a former lobbyist for Raytheon. His appointee for chief of staff at the Treasury Department, Mark Patterson, lobbied for Goldman Sachs. During his presidential campaign, Obama criticized a culture in which “our leaders have thrown open the doors of … the White House to an army of Washington lobbyists who have turned our government into a game only they can afford to play.” Has anything really changed?

His nominee for chief performance officer, Nancy Killefer, withdrew after disclosure she failed to pay unemployment taxes for household help at her D.C. home.

His nominee for secretary of health and human services, former Sen. Tom Daschle, failed to pay $140,000 in income taxes stemming from his use of a luxury car and driver provided to him by a campaign donor and owner of a business Daschle advised. Daschle said the failure to pay was unintentional because the firm had not provided him with an IRS Form 1099 showing the car as income. His explanation is hollow. As Democratic leader in the Senate, how could he not know that the value of in-kind services must be reported as income? Perhaps the only thing unintentional about this is that Daschle never intended to be found out. While Senate Democrats were willing to stand by him, Daschle had the gumption to withdraw Tuesday and avoid further embarrassment to the Obama administration.

President Obama has a clear vision of a bipartisan government for which millions of Americans earnestly yearn. We wish him the best – and urge him to be more vigilant about adhering to the promises that won him the White House.

I agree with the last paragraph.