I've got no particular sympathy for Tom Daschle and his tax problems--for cryin' out loud, didn't this guy have an accountant? On the other hand, I don't really think this round of tax problems is anything other than par for the course.
They will be different for Obama though, for one very good reason: he's Mr. Transformative, Mr. Change We Can Believe In, Mr. New Standard of Ethics and Morals in Washington. Set the bar so high and you are bound to trip over it, to the profound embarrassment of yourself and your friends.
Don't misunderstand: I think Obama really believes this stuff, and if he were the kind of guy to stomp around the Oval Office, then right now he would be stomping around the Oval Office ("why didn't somebody tell me," he must be thinking, and perhaps saying). What he's finding out, I think, is that it isn't that easy, and that the best intentions can get ground up in the sheer dailiness of life in the big city. And I'd certainly rather have a President with ill-founded good intention than one who didn't give a rat's patootie whether the government worked or not.
For perspective, I suspect we'd have the same kind of disconnect if we had elected the other great moralist in last year's campaign.--Obama's opponent, John McCain. But it would be different with McCain: even setting aside the really formidable array of talent and determination that Obama has seemed to assemble, with McCain we'd be left with a guy who likes to shoot dice.
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