Head on--apply directly to the problem

Just watched Barack Obama respond to the controversy over his remarks. I was mostly off the news grid this weekend, but they certainly make me cringe--more on this later. For the nonce, I wanted to note that I am terrifically impressed by the way the Obama campaign tackles its missteps head-on. Barack Obama admitted that he chose his words badly, and said it probably wouldn't be the last time. Compare this to the Clinton campaign's reaction to the Bosnia fiasco. Admitting your errors quickly and apologizing makes a story yesterday's news. I still think his remarks will be damaging--good issue management doesn't always make issues go away. But I think he mitigated the damage as much as was possible.

This article available online at:

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2008/04/head-on-apply-directly-to-the-problem/3221/