A President's Persistence in An Era of Quick Fixes

At the end of his news conference Tuesday night, PresidentObama made a pitch for the "philosophy of persistence."

He said: "I'm a big believer in persistence. I think thatwhen it comes to domestic affairs, if we keep on working at it, if weacknowledge that we make mistakes sometimes and that we don't always have theright answer, and we're inheriting very knotty problems, that we can passhealth care, we can find better solutions to our energy challenges, we canteach our children more effectively, we can deal with a very real budget crisisthat is not fully dealt with in my -- in my budget at this point, but makesprogress."

He went on to make similar points about foreign policy,particularly U.S. relationswith Iranand the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

When you've been in office some 60 days and facing economicchallenges not seen since the Depression, it's probably a good way of lookingat things. And it seems to mirror Obama's thoughtful, calm demeanor.

The question is: Can he stick to his philosophy in an age ofinstant polling, 24-hour cable pontificating, Internet debates and expectationsthat there is a quick-fix just around the corner. There is tremendous pressure to make thingsbetter sooner rather than later as thousands of workers are laid off, credit istight, business is bad and people are scared.

You can't criticize the President and his advisers for nottrying. They've done a lot in a short time: the stimulus package, the mortgagebailout plan, a huge budget proposal that contains his ideas for energyindependence, education and health care reform, more bailout for the unpopularAIG and, this week, the plan to rid the banks of the so-called toxic assets byforming a public-private partnership to purchase those assets.

He also has to deal with people's anger, particularly overthe bonus payments to AIG executives.

When I wrote about the mortgage bailout plan a couple weeksago, many readers were angry that the government has to bail out people whotook out mortgages they couldn't afford or businesses that made bad loans. Intheory, I agree with that. I've been paying mortgages for nearly 40 years and havenever missed a payment. But that's beside the point. If we want to fix thefinancial problem, we have to get at the bad mortgages and the toxic assets,based on bad mortgages, the banks are holding. If you have four houses on yourblock that are foreclosed and are being sold, that drives your property valuesdown. If the banks won't lend money because they hold bad assets, that hurtsbusinesses and consumers. We don't have to like the fact that people made baddecisions, but it's silly to say the hell with them, when that keeps us fromsolving the problem.

As for AIG, people want to know why the company keepsgetting government money. The fact is, whether we like it or not, the company isso intertwined in American and international insurance, pension funds, lifeinsurance and investments with both private and government clients that its failurewould have been an economic disaster. And, at the time it was about tocollapse, the government did not have the tools, other than cash infusion, tostep in and take it over because it isn't a bank. That's why Timothy Geithner,the Treasury secretary, went to Congress to ask for new authority to deal withfuture AIGs.

As for the bonuses, people have every right to be outraged.But again I'm not sure that a law taxing the bonuses is the best answer.Perhaps most of the executives will feel enough guilt that they willvoluntarily give the money back, as some have already done.

"Bankers and executives on Wall Street need to realize thatenriching themselves on the taxpayer's dime is inexcusable, that the days ofoutsize rewards and reckless speculation that puts us all at risk have to beover," the President said. "At the same time, the rest of us can't afford todemonize every investor or entrepreneur who seeks to make a profit. That driveis what has always fueled our prosperity, and it is what will ultimately getthese banks lending and our economy moving once more."

At the end of his news conference, the President said thathe hoped when people looked back four years from now, they would say, "This isa big ocean liner. It's not a speedboat. It doesn't turn around immediately.But we're in a better -- better place because of the decisions that we made."