Maybe we will look back on Tom Daschle's withdrawal in a few months and just sort of shrug our shoulders, and think 'it was a big deal, but not really big.'
And then again, maybe not.
History is always a good teacher, and there is relevant history for Democrats here.
16 years ago, Bill Clinton's first term started to go off the tracks for a variety of reasons. One of them was the defeat of his economic stimulus plan in the U.S. Senate, when Republicans succeeded in arguing that the bill was filled with pork and government spending.
Another problem that Clinton encountered was that he had a series of high profile nominees who had to withdraw because they had tax problems.
Sound familiar?
Right now it does. Whether it's going to doom the Obama Team is still to be figured out.
As for the stimulus bill, there are still two things that cause problems for Democrats in the minds of voters - the Dems like to spend and they like to tax.
At least with this bill, there aren't any tax increases. But there sure is a lot of spending.
Again, I'm not saying that Obama is going to go down the tubes now. In fact, it was something different to hear him say on network TV last night that he "screwed up" when the guy who was President before him could hardly admit to any missteps.
But it's clear Obama has shown some holes in his armor recently.
His vaunted vetting staff sure didn't do their jobs very well. (I could have told them Bill Richardson was a bad idea, but they wouldn't have listened.)
Does this mean Republicans are going to feel more emboldened and challenge Obama more directly?
Will they have more guts to go after Democratic spending plans in the stimulus bill?
Lots of questions and not many answers. But there have been too many stumbles the last two weeks by the Obama Team to just ignore them.
We'll see how the White House reacts.
About the Author