Jonathan Weisman, Wall Street Journal, is the White House corespondent along with Laura Meckler, and here he presents the best face imaginable of the ragged end to the Obama administration's helter skelter campaigns on the Hill.  The low-key James Crowley narrative dominated the last two weeks of the month; it was compelling but not nearly as signficant or long-term as the fights on healthcare.  The White House allowed the Crowley narrative to take over -- perhaps just because there was no structure to the healthcare agenda.  When in trouble, get in more trouble -- just crash the limo into the milk cow.  Crowley's dignity deprived the Obama administration of a snap thrill or quick moral win.

The Obama team sudden rush to embrace the novelty of Cash-for-Clunkers is a measure of their loss of momentum and planning.  They are running to whatever appears to be hot in hope of a headline and a push in the polls.  It makes for despair.  The team is young, and it will recover.  Perhaps it may learn that Congress is a separate and superior body of government.  No.  The limits of no planning.  There is a probably a fault in here but not easily discerned from the outside.  What happens in the first season is what stays in the memory of the historians.  Andrew Jackson took on his whole Cabinet over a Jezebel tyro who was married to one of his billy goats, and it turned official Washington against him.  Jackson used it as a strength and took on everyone potent to make himself the common man's president.  Each weakness is an opportunity for a clever POTUS.  By fall, the Crowley narrative will be cluttered with others, and the spin will be off to new accomplishments.  A presidency is a chronicle of partisan disappointment and oppo glee.  Same as it ever was.  The oppo to Obama is mild as soap suds in comparison to the oppo to earlier presidents.  Early yet.