Advice From The Oracle

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett had some sage advice for Washington the other day.

During a three-hour talk fest Monday on CNBC, the world's second-richest man said he'd never seen the American public more fearful or confused about the economy.

For that to change, he said, the government needs to do a much better job explaining what it's doing to fix the problem.

"We've had muddled messages," Buffett said. The public does not know "what's going on, and their reaction then is to absolutely pull back."

Foes of the president rejoiced in an I-told-you-so moment. Muddled messages! Yes!

Republicans gleefully circulated the Buffett quote as confirmation from the second wealthiest man on the planet - a big Obama supporter - that the new president isn't getting the job done.

They say Obama's decision to push ahead with health care and education reforms indicates he isn't paying enough attention to the economy. They blamed this scattershot approach for the muddled message.

Not so fast. Obama does not deserve all the blame, even if he did sign into law thousands of special spending "earmarks" after vowing to reform the way Washington works.

Democratic congressional leaders helped further confuse the public when they said they might push for a second mammoth stimulus package before the first one has a chance to work. How are the taxpayers who are paying for these projects ever to judge their effectiveness?

And Buffett made it clear that congressional Republicans are also culpable for failing to rally behind the president.

He likened the collapse of the financial markets to another Pearl Harbor and cast the swoon in the economy as nothing short of war. With the country in a war, everybody needs to unite behind the commander in chief, Buffett said.

"The Republicans have an obligation to regard this as an economic war and to realize that you need one leader," he said.

Right before D-Day, he said, you wouldn't have had a congressional hearing "and have 535 people give their opinion about where the troops should land," he said. "And I think after June 6th, you don't have another hearing that says,
Gee, if we'd just landed a mile north.'"

Not surprisingly, just as Republicans found something to cheer about in Buffet's advice, so did Democrats. And neither side - conveniently - heard Buffett's advice for their own party.

Not for nothing is Buffett called the "Oracle of Omaha." Oracles are often open to interpretation.

The change in administrations brought a glimmer of hope that partisanship might end or diminish, especially in light of the magnitude of the country's troubles. But as this episode in party bickering demonstrates, it hasn't happened yet, despite the president's Wednesday night socials and other overtures to Republicans.

Buffett strikes a chord for many Americans when he challenges Congress to get serious.

"This is a war," he said. "A lot of the normal things that go on in Washington are really inappropriate in this setting."

Get the economy solved first, he said, and then go back to yelling at each other and putting in pet projects. Ouch.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs emphasized Buffett's call for bipartisan cooperation, but he also swiped at Obama's predecessor, saying the problems that caused the economic meltdown started years ago.

Gibbs was ignoring another Buffett rule: no finger-pointing.

"I would not say, you know,
George - the previous administration got us into this.' Forget it." Buffett said.

And here's a tough one for a new president with tall ambitions: Avoid contentious issues until the economy is on the mend.

"You can't expect people to unite behind you if you're trying to jam a whole bunch of things down their throat," Buffett said. He didn't specify which policies he meant.

Obama has insisted that he doesn't have the luxury of fixing just the economy but has to deal with a myriad of other issues at the same time.

He's betting that more job creation and lending in the short term will restore public confidence while long-term reforms set the nation up for prosperity in the future. It's a gamble.

Nobody - not Obama and not the Oracle of Omaha - knows whether it will work.