President Obama can recover from some early missteps by showing a firmer commitment to walking the walk of his campaign promises about ethics.
His presidency is not yet three weeks old, and it's far too early to reach conclusions about Obama's ability to govern. The new president has shown refreshing candor on the job and a welcome urgency in his efforts to turn around the spiraling economy.
To his credit, Obama has quickly reversed some bad policies from the Bush era. He approved an expansion of children's health insurance, signed an order to close the prison at Guantanamo, took steps to strengthen clean-air standards, and overturned the gag rule on international family planning.
But several high-profile stumbles on Obama's nominees have distracted from those achievements and undermined the president's work to persuade Congress to approve an economic-recovery package. Rather than heralding a new day in Washington, these mistakes have looked like more of the same.
Obama waged a rhetorical campaign last year against lobbyists, and promised in his inaugural address "a new era of responsibility." Then, he nominated Tom Daschle for secretary of health and human services, despite Daschle's having earned millions from the health-care industry in speaking and consulting fees in recent years.
After being nominated, Daschle belatedly revealed that he owed $146,000 in taxes and interest. Forced to choose between loyalty and living up to his pledge about responsibility, Obama wrongly stuck by Daschle. Daschle rightly backed out.
The nomination of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner turned out to be even more inappropriate. The man who oversees the IRS failed to pay taxes for several years on overseas income. Obama stuck with Geithner, and the Senate went along.
Nancy Killefer, Obama's choice to root out waste and fraud in government, withdrew over a tax problem. And the nomination of Hilda Solis as labor secretary is on hold after a newspaper reported that her husband paid $6,400 on Wednesday to settle tax liens on his business dating as far back as 16 years.
In one of his first acts, Obama signed a strict "revolving door" ban against lobbyists becoming public officials. Then he waived it to nominate former Raytheon lobbyist William J. Lynn to be second in charge at the Pentagon, at the request of Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates. Raytheon is one of the nation's top military contractors, having done $18.3 billion in business with the federal government in 2007. It's a relationship that has enriched Lynn.
It's debatable whether some of Obama's mistakes could have been avoided. What's beyond dispute is that none of these examples looks like "change."
One new development that is refreshing is Obama's willingness to admit when he's wrong.
"I screwed up," the president told NBC News in response to the Daschle mess. "It's important for this administration to send a message that there aren't two sets of rules - you know, one for prominent people, and one for ordinary folks who have to pay their taxes."
On a day when Obama intended to promote his economic-recovery plan, the president instead spent time explaining to several network anchors how he'd messed up. Now that the president has shown humility, he must demonstrate that he has learned from his mistakes.