Whalen’s Wailing — How is the White House handling H1N1?
Images of long snaking lines of parents and kids waiting for flu vaccine are starting to appear around the country and if they’re not causing alarm in Barack Obama’s White House, they ought to.
The issue for the White House is having to reconcile these images of near-panicked citizens with reassuring statements made months ago by administration officials that sufficient supplies of H1N1 vaccine would soon be on their way.
“To have to backpedal on numbers and delivery dates while declaring an emergency undermines credibility,” said Harvard Business School Professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter, an expert on leadership. “And to explain that the administration’s power to act is limited further depletes its power, while making citizens feel more vulnerable. This is not an issue that plays to Obama’s strengths,” she wrote in POLITICO’s Arena forum.
“The public can’t be urged to join together, hold hands, and solve the flu problem; in fact we’re not supposed to touch each other’s hands at all or we’ll catch the flu.”
“The administration’s response to the flu epidemic reminds me of Kevin Bacon’s character at the end of the movie ‘Animal House’,” said Thomas Whalen, a Boston University Professor of Social Science. “He tells a riotous mob to remain calm, that ‘all is well.’ Well, we all know what happened to him afterward. He was literally crushed by the weight of events. The Obama administration runs a similar political risk here,” Whalen said in an Arena post.
So far, polling, at least, is not showing an outpouring of anger at the administration let alone a riotous mob. Whether this lasts, observers say, depends on how widespread the flu gets.
Historically, long snaking lines of people trying to get anything other than concert tickets has spelled trouble for presidents — from Herbert Hoover to Jimmy Carter. When the people in line are moms and kids, you can double the potential trouble.
“A mother’s angst is nothing to fool with,” said former White House Press Secretary Dana Perino. “I’ll set aside ‘if this had been the Bush administration…,’ because, well, I think we all know the answer,” Perino wrote in the Arena. “But it’s hard for moms and dads in America to understand how the Obama administration so missed the mark on the vaccine, or the setting of expectations about the vaccine.
Others felt the public may be more forgiving. “It is inevitable that Washington will politicize a public health event, and it’s been a remarkable thing that folks (the public, the press, and the politicians) have been as patient as they have been,” said Greg Dworkin, a physician professionally involved in flu response planning.
“According to the polls, the public remains patient, and despite headlines to the contrary, continues with confidence in the Obama administration to handle this,” said Dworkin, a contributing editor to DailyKos.
Dworkin said he believes people on the whole understand the uncertainties of the flu, as well as the fact that “the bottlenecks” for vaccine and medicine to treat the flu “involve the private sector” and “cannot be easily be solved by government agencies.”
“So how big a political problem is this? My feeling is not as big as the recent headlines make it out to be. Everyone is aware of the big picture, which mitigates but does not eliminate the frustration, and CDC and other health officials have been both visible and active from the beginning.
“The big mistake, acknowledged, is promising more than can be delivered. The deliverables are there, however, even though late, and that’s a different problem than never having the goods in the first place.”
“If President Obama has Gerald Ford’s luck he will avoid political retribution despite the continuing vaccine delay missteps,” said University of Pennsylvania History Professor Mary Frances Berry. “In the great swine flu scare of 1976, Gerald Ford was saved from real embarrassment, despite faulty execution, because there was no epidemic – in fact there were few cases at all. Unfortunately, there are more cases this time and the political fall-out will depend on whether the availability fix outruns any increase in the infected.”
The Arena – Daily debate about the big issue of the momentPosted on Oct. 23, 2009POLITICO Home
Arena Profile: Thomas J. Whalen
CGS Professor Thomas Whalen is a frequent commentator on the political scene.
Thomas J. Whalen is an associate professor of social science at Boston University and author of “Kennedy versus Lodge: The 1952 Massachusetts Senate Race.” Whalen’s latest book, “A Higher Purpose: Profiles in Presidential Courage,” resurrects Truman and eight other American leaders and the moments that defined their political careers, using John F. Kennedy’s 1955 best seller, Profiles in Courage, as a touchstone. An expert in modern American politics, American foreign policy and the American presidency, Whalen’s expert commentary has appeared in the New York Times, ABCNews.com, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, and the AP. He has also appeared on several national broadcast outlets including CNN, NPR and Reuters TV.
Thomas J. Whalen’s Recent Discussions
Does the administration appear to have its act together on the flu? If not, how hazardous is it to Obama’s political health?
The administration’s response to the flu epidemic reminds me of Kevin Bacon’s character at the end of the movie “Animal House.” He tells a riotous mob to remain calm, that “all is well.” Well, we all know what happened to him afterward. He was literally crushed by the weight of events. The Obama administration runs a similar political risk here.
What are the national implications of the “mini mid-terms” in Virginia and NJ?
Given the fact that the health care bill’s fate is still up in the air along with the economy’s, I wouldn’t read too much into these “mini-mid-terms.” The real political barometer for how well the Obama administration is doing will be the following November during the “mega mid-terms.” Until then, it’s all idle chatter.
Today’s Question: The pay czar’s pay slash: A “very good thing,” as Barney Frank says, or not?
In Health Care Arena: Michael Cannon: “Yes, Mr. President. A free market can fix health care’
Noon Friday author chat with Andrew Ross Sorkin, “Too Big to Fail”
Are you kidding me? It’s a golden opportunity to make a meaningful policy statement about corporate welfare; i.e. taxpayer money should not be used to line the pockets of Wall Street’s malefactors of wealth.
White House Strategy: Will Obama’s effort to undermine critics undermine Obama instead? Is it overdue or overdone?
In the Health Care Arena, stripping antitrust exemption from insurance biz
Noon Thursday, Heritage live chat, David Kreutzer on the cost of Waxman-Markey
Noon Friday, Andrew Ross Sorkin on “Too Big to Fail”
Oct. 21, 2009Let’s put it this way. If John Kerry had taken a similar dogged approach during the 2004 presidential race, he would be sitting in the Oval Office now. Thankfully, President Obama is no John Kerry. He has too much Chicago in him to be that politically pliant.
The Nobel Peace Prize to Obama: Approve or disapprove?
It seems a little early to begin handing out awards when President Obama has barely gotten his feet wet in international affairs. When Teddy Roosevelt received his Nobel Peace Prize in 1906, it was following his successful efforts to broker a peace settlement between the principals in the Russo-Japanese War. Obama has to date no comparable diplomatic achievements, which makes this bestowal all the more puzzling.
Follow this debate in POLITICO’s Arena.
