White House Losing the Narrative

How do you take the biggest PR coup in a long long time and turn it into a potential disaster?  Just do what the White House has done since they took out bin Laden (from Beltway Confidential):

Losing control of the narrative: The headlines on morning three of the post-Osama era are not good for the White House. NYT: “Account Tells of One-Sided Battle in Bin Laden Raid.” WaPo: “White House goes silent on bin Laden raid.” LAT: “Trail to Bin Laden began with CIA detainee, officials say.”WaPo: “In bin Laden victory, echoes of the Bush years.”

The problem for the White House is that they have no credible explanation for why Obama’s policies deserve any credit for Osama’s capture. Politico reports: “White House officials have … repeatedly made it clear that Obama’s breaks with his predecessor — his refusal to describe the fight as a “war on terror” and his opposition to waterboarding — contributed to the successful hunt for bin Laden.” Huh? Bush ended waterboarding years before Obama even declared he was running for President. And what part of Osama’s capture had anything to do with how Obama chose to describe the fight against al Qaeda? No wonder Obama’s Osama-bounce has been mixed and limited at best.

Ground zero gambit: The Huffington Post reports that the White House is frustrated that “the news over the killing of Osama bin Laden has turned into a debate over the efficacy of harsh interrogation techniques and torture.” Obama’s visit to Ground Zero today is an obvious effort to hit the reset button on the post-Osama message, refocusing the conversation back onto the “unity” line that the White House first tried to peddle on Sunday on Monday.

There's more at the link. Had they handled this correctly Americans would feel a lot more confident in the idea of Obama as commander-in-chief and protector of the homeland. Instead the aftermath has been changing stories, glory hogging, and mind-numbingly stupid decisions that fly in the face of the desires of the public. Whatever bump Obama might have gotten from the killing of bin Laden will surely evaporate and he may actually end up in a worse position than he was in before the attack.

John Nolte tweets this which sums it up:

Hi White House: Was this too simple?: 1. Kill OBL 2. Spread credit. 3. Have military handle MSM. 4. Release photo. 5. Polls surge.

Exactly. As I wrote yesterday, this incident should be a case study in every management book about how not to handle a situation.