Obama Admits Embarrassing Day for Administration
President tells Charles Gibson that nominees' tax troubles send wrong message.
Feb. 3, 2009— -- President Obama acknowledged that it has been an embarrassing day for his administration, taking responsibility for three of his high-level nominees' withdrawing their names because of tax troubles.
"Anytime one of your nominees pulls out, that's an issue and, you know, as I've said publicly, you know, ultimately, I take responsibility for the situation that we're in," Obama said in an interview today in the Oval Office with ABC News' Charles Gibson, referring to Tom Daschle. "I think that all of these were honest mistakes, but ultimately, there's no excuse for them."
When asked by Gibson if it has been an embarrassing day for the White House, Obama said: "I think it has."
Daschle, Obama's choice for secretary of Health and Human Services, withdrew his nomination because of a failure to pay $140,000 in income taxes, while the president's chief enforcement officer also stepped aside today for similar reasons. Obama said this sends the wrong message about responsibility.
"We don't have two sets of rules here," he said. "The most important thing, from my perspective, is making sure that the American people understand we don't have two sets of rules here, that everybody has responsibilities. In this situation, I take responsibility for it."
Obama told Gibson he's angry that news of his tax-troubled appointees has taken the focus away from the goal of passing the economic stimulus bill and putting Americans back to work.
"We can't afford glitches, because right now, what I should be spending time talking to you about is how we're going to put 3 [million] to 4 million people back to work," Obama said. "This is a self-induced injury that I'm angry about, and we're going to make sure we get it fixed."
Despite these challenges, the new president said that he is "surprisingly comfortable in the job."
"I think I've got a great staff," Obama said. "We've got a great team. The challenges are big ... not just an immediate economic crisis but a long-term budget issue in terms of the amount of debt that we're accumulating. Trying to square all those circles is a challenge. But one thing that I'm absolutely convinced about is that you want to be president when you've got big problems. If things are going to go smoothly, then this is just another nice home office."
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