A good man, badly handled
Nebraska businessman Tony Raimondo was slated for a Department of Commerce position to help U.S. manufacturing, until it became known that he had opened a factory in China. The resulting controversy led Raimondo to withdraw.
But according to the Omaha World-Herald, the Chinese factory was serving the Chinese market and Nebraskans think it created 100 Nebraskan jobs. Geitner Simmons has the story.
It's surprising the administration didn't see the way this story could go. Today's Washington Post has a story on problems the administration is facing in coordinating it's economic "message": "Missteps on Economy Worry Bush Supporters".
- "A string of glaring missteps by President Bush's economic team has raised alarm among the president's supporters that his economic policymakers may have lost the most basic ability to formulate a persuasive message or anticipate the political consequences of their actions.
In recent weeks, the White House has had to endure its chief economist's positive comments about job "outsourcing," or sending work overseas; controversial passages in the annual Economic Report of the President; questions over the legitimacy of Bush's 2005 budget; a California swing in which Bush bragged about the possible addition of two or three jobs to a 14-person business in Bakersfield and a flap over a job-creation forecast that not even the president could stand by...
But the non-naming of Anthony F. Raimondo on Thursday as assistant commerce secretary for manufacturing and services has brought the concerns to a boil.
The long-anticipated announcement of a manufacturing czar was supposed to be a good-news day for a White House struggling with its economic message. Instead the planned, smiling photo op fizzled when it came to light that a year ago Bush's choice had opened a major plant in Beijing..."
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