After a wave of euphoria probably unequaled since Ronald Reagan's election in 1980 (though some would argue that Bill Clinton's first victory in 1992 might also be a humdinger), both Obama and the country have a chance to catch their breaths and begin to look at things without the collective inaugural beer goggles.

America has been reminded that even a relative newcomer is prone to making the same mistakes as the hardened political veterans, because the machinery which catapults someone into office is the same for both.  Obama has promised a lot of changes and I pray that he's able to carry them out.  But the machinery is set against him, and the Daschle affair points that out.  America needs to recognize that both Red and Blue have highly developed political machines, and nobody is going to rise to the top in either unless they play ball with the machinery.  And not even Obama is immune to that level of quid pro quo.  

Which is good for Obama to learn.  I think that Obama really believed that his chutzpah would be able to override the rising indignation over so many tax 'blunders' amongst his appointees.  I'll assume he believed that Daschle was the best choice (which means this is what the Machine pushed him towards), and therefore was willing to take the very counter-ethical position of backing Daschle despite pretty clear and obvious demonstrations that the guy was not playing on the up and up.  Now Obama has learned - hopefully - that charisma alone is not going to carry him very far in his presidency.   And hopefully he's learned that his machine is by no means infallible.

I find it interesting that Obama is claiming responsibility for all of this.  I'm assuming that he didn't know, initially, of Daschle's financial boo-boo.  So he can't be apologizing for the fact that Daschle and others have been found to be more than a little lacking in their fiscal fiduciary duties.  Assuming he nominated them with a clear conscience, the only thing he has to apologize for is being willing to sacrifice the promises of accountability and ethicalness that he promised during his campaign.  Again.  Which is by no means a small issue, and so he rightly should take a 'the buck stops here' approach to things. 

I find it equally interesting, however, that Daschle is still not censured for his 'oversight'.  While he was willing to publicly apologize if it helped his nomination process, it would seem that few key players are willing to state what is obvious to every ordinary citizen:  his behavior was not acceptable, and that he should accept the blame not simply of embarrassing a new president and a political machine, but also the blame of being unethical in his personal practices.  The fact that there isn't more censure seems to underscore the fact that these are the sorts of things that more of our top players engage in - either passively or actively - than any of us would really like to know about.  It underscores the massive disconnect between a political elite who can write out a check for $140,000 to settle a tax issue without apparently too much worry, while mainstream America struggles with layoffs and salary cuts and a constant exhortation to suck it up and go out and stimulate the economy.  

Something is definitely rotten in Denmark, and it's going to take more than Obamamania to change that.