A lousy weekend in Obamaland
After celebrating his 50th birthday, fund raising in his hometown Chicago, President Obama managed to catch a little bit of wind with the acrimonious debt deal and Friday's mildly positive jobs numbers. But the relaxing weekend at Camp David where he hoped to wrap his graying head around recharging the stalled economy, and perhaps playing golf or watching to see if Tiger Woods can make his comeback at the Bridgestone International tournament was interrupted.
On Friday afternoon he learned that Standard and Poor's was likely to downgrade U.S. long-term debt from AAA to AA+, knowing that he would be the first president of the United States to have that demerit on his record. On Friday evening around 8:00 P.M. ET, S&P issued its downgrade.
After a barrage of press briefings and statements on national TV to get the debt deal done, Mr. Obama has not yet made any statements about the S&P downgrade. The White House offered a bland statement on Saturday around 12:00 P.M . ET that did not address S&P's report: "Over the coming weeks the President will strongly encourage the bipartisan fiscal committee as well as all members of Congress to put our common commitment to a stronger recovery and a sounder long-term fiscal path above our political and ideological differences."
Late Friday, a Treasury Dept. spokesman characterized the S&P downgrade a "judgment flawed by a $2-trillion error" that "speaks for itself."
Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, however, did issue a statement on Friday: "This makes the work of the joint committee all the more important, and shows why leaders should appoint members who will approach the committee's work with an open mind -- instead of hardliners who have already ruled out the balanced approach that the markets and rating agencies like S&P are demanding."
Reid was referring to the special bipartisan Congressional committee, who might now be more inspired to find some common ground on a solution because of the downgrade and general antipathy toward Congress.
Mr. Obama can take some comfort in the fact that the other two ratings agencies, Moody's and Fitch Rating have so far maintained their AAA ratings, but the blood is in the water and the sharks are circling as the presidential race heats up.
GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney didn't have much to say during the debt debate but he was quick to seize on the downgrade to criticize Mr. Obama: "America's creditworthiness just became the latest casualty in President Obama's failed record of leadership on the economy. Standard & Poor's rating downgrade is a deeply troubling indicator of our country's decline under President Obama."
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Who's to blame for S&P's downgrade of U.S. credit?
Another GOP presidential hopeful, Michele Bachmann, said, "This President has destroyed the credit rating of the United States through his failed economic policies and his inability to control government spending by raising the debt ceiling." During the debt debate, Bachmann said that she would not vote to raise the debt ceiling.
Tim Pawlenty, also in the GOP hunt for the nomination, said, "This is a sad moment for the United States, but it's a reflection that our country is in trouble. President Obama is inept when it comes to creating the conditions or job creation and economic growth. It's time for a new direction and a new President."
S&P stated that its downgrade of U.S. debt is attributed, in part, to the political gridlock in Washington, citing the "difficulties of bridging the gulf between the political parties" and pessimism over the "capacity of Congress and the administration to be able to leverage their agreement this week into a broader fiscal consolidation plan that stabilizes the government's debt dynamics anytime soon."
"Washington seems to have lost its way in the span of 18 months. We've gone from spending nearly a trillion dollars on a stimulus to cutting over a trillion from spending. But whatever they've tried, nothing seems to change," said CBS News' Bob Schieffer, who has covered Washington for 42 years.
"I guess you can say things are getting back to normal in one way here. The president went off to a fundraiser the day after the debt crisis was resolved and Congress went on another vacation. So on that front, it's business as usual," he added.
A recent CBS News/New York Times poll found that 82 percent of Americans disapprove of the way Congress is doing its job--the highest disapproval rating since polling began in 1977.
On top of the bad news on the debt downgrade, Mr. Obama was alerted early on Saturday with worse news. Thirty-one American special forces soldiers were killed in action, shot down in a Chinook helicopter in the Sayd Abad district of the Wardak province in Afghanistan by insurgents.
It's a war that Mr. Obama is winding down, but not fast enough for those in harm's way or the American public, who's opinions have shifted against fighting the war in Afghanistan, which is in its tenth year.
With a directive for more foot patrols, American troops are getting out of their mine-resistant vehicles with the result of a tripling in the number of multiple amputations. In the first six months of 2011, 27 soldiers have suffered multiple amputations compared to 18 in the first six months of 2010.
Mr. Obama and his battered team will soon be back in Washington, ready to fight another round on the deficit and deal with other pressing issues, like jobs. He plans to hit the road in mid-August for a three-day bus tour touting job creation.
He will continue to call for a "grand bargain," including revenues, such as closing some of the tax loopholes for the wealthy and corporations, and not gutting entitlements as part of the deficit reduction plan to be drafted by the bipartisan committee.
Congress is in recess until Labor Day. Its members may not be too welcome in their states and districts as they take their summer vacations and raise money. Perhaps they should return to Washington and take up the business of the people before confidence in the U.S. government's ability to fix what is broken falls off the cliff it is teetering upon.
CBS News Chief Washington Correspondent Norah O'Donnell spoke to "Early Show" co-anchor Chris Wragge Monday about Mr. Obama's return from the long weekend that brought word of the U.S. credit downgrade and the Afghanistan helicopter crash: