THE ESTABLISHMENT HAS SPOKEN: Norman Ornstein: Buck Stops With Obama on Rocky Rollout of Health Care Plan. “I view the problem in a broader way. It is the larger failure of public administration that has been endemic in the Obama White House, and is probably the president’s most significant weakness.” He’s not very competent, and like most people who aren’t very competent, he tends to hire people who are no more competent than he. As they say: First rate people hire first rate people. Second rate people hire third rate people.