Opinion

‘Taking responsibility’

What should a political leader do when something goes terribly wrong on his watch?

Pointing fingers at others and deferring blame brings two risks: The public may not believe the defensive cry of, It’s not my fault! And, even at best, it comes across as irresponsible and shiftless: I had no idea what my staff was doing doesn’t really reassure the public about the leader’s judgment.

In recent years, we’ve seen a new approach; it’s become the new standard of the Obama administration — the loud proclamation of three powerful words: “I take responsibility.”

The catch? Afterward, nothing really changes. It’s the appearance of accountability, without all the complications and headaches of actual responsibility.

When you or I take responsibility for a mistake, we take action to fix it. We apologize for bad judgment, re-examine our conduct and consider what to do differently next time. People may get demoted or lose jobs, if the consequences are severe enough.

That’s not how politicians use the term “taking responsibility.”

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s declaration that she takes responsibility for the failure to secure our facilities and personnel in Libya — with no word on any actual consequence of this failure — is the most recent example. But the approach began from the very start of this administration.

* OnFeb. 3, 2009, former Sen. Tom Daschle withdrew as President Obama’s nominee for Commerce secretary after it was revealed he’d failed to pay some taxes. “I think I screwed up,” Obama told CNN’s Anderson Cooper. “I take responsibility for it, and we’re going to make sure we fix it, so it doesn’t happen again.”

Of course, Tim Geithner, who failed to pay more than $40,000 in taxes over a four-year period is still Treasury secretary, and earlier this yearwe learned that 36 Obama aides owe $833,000 in back taxes.

* After a loud public outcry, Obama saidhe “took responsibility” for themillions in bonuses paid to AIG executives as part of the bailout. Of course, the bonuses remained.

* Discussing the national debtin Virginia on Aug. 6, 2009, Obamasaid, “I don’t mind being responsible. I expect to be held responsible for these issues, because I’m the president.” We’ve added $4.4 trillion in new debt since he said those words.

* After ObamaCare passed, the president admitted he hadn’t kept his promises on how the legislation would be handled. He told congressional Republicans that most of the debate had been aired on TV — except for some of the talks close to the Senate vote. “That was a messy process,” Obama said. “I take responsibility.” But it was too late to change anything about the law at that point, obviously.

* Obamasaid he “took responsibility” for the 2010 midterm results… but there was little or no sign that he changed his governing approach, philosophy or policies in response to the lopsided results in favor of the Republicans that year.

* Finally, in summer 2011, the president admitted that he’d misjudged the severity of the economic difficulties facing the country when he came into office: “Even I did not realize the magnitude, because most economists didn’t realize the magnitude of the recession until fairly far into it,” Obama said. “I think people may not have been prepared for how long this was going to take, and why we were going to have to make some very difficult decisions and choices. I take responsibility for that.” But the policies and approach we’ve seen since that declaration of responsibility are the same as what we saw before it; nothing changed.

We see this facsimile of responsibility throughout the administration: the only person who has been fired over the “Fast and Furious” gun-running operation was one of the whistleblowers. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius was found to have violated the Hatch Act, but she suffered no real consequence and is back on the campaign trail at Democratic events.

Time and again, the public is given declarations of “responsibility” without actual consequences for bad judgment.

It seems that, when responsibility is “taken” in this administration, it’s in the sense of those Liam Neeson movies: Responsibility has suddenly, mysteriously disappeared — and we’re never going to hear from it again.

Jim Geraghty, a contributing editor at National Review, writes the magazine’s “Campaign Spot” blog.