Please Show Some Graciousness, Mr. Obama

President Obama campaigned on a message of hope and change, promising to bring an end to partisan sniping while giving Americans something to believe in.

I’m amazed at how quickly change has come to the White House website at www.whitehouse.gov where a new, crisp design and easy to read pages have already replaced the previous rendition. Clearly, President Obama’s communication team is top notch, delivering to us a site that is detailed and easy to navigate.

But, I’m also concerned that some of the tone on the site is anything but gracious, where at least one topic, Katrina, demonstrates that Mr. Obama isn’t looking forward as he has often promised to do (italics mine):

President Obama will keep the broken promises made by President Bush to rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. He and Vice President Biden will take steps to ensure that the federal government will never again allow such catastrophic failures in emergency planning and response to occur.

President Obama swiftly responded to Hurricane Katrina. Citing the Bush Administration’s “unconscionable ineptitude” in responding to Hurricane Katrina, then-Senator Obama introduced legislation requiring disaster planners to take into account the specific needs of low-income hurricane victims. Obama visited thousands of Hurricane survivors in the Houston Convention Center and later took three more trips to the region. He worked with members of the Congressional Black Caucus to introduce legislation to address the immediate income, employment, business, and housing needs of Gulf Coast communities.

President Barack Obama will partner with the people of the Gulf Coast to rebuild now, stronger than ever.

Mr. Obama’s commitment to New Orleans is laudable, but certainly he should take a page out of the Bush playbook by looking forward, not back — isn’t that what hope does? Whether you agree with Mr. Bush’s policies or not, one thing the 43rd president didn’t do while he was in command was to dredge up the many failings of the Clinton Administration, the Marc Rich pardon being one of the most glaring of them.

Right now I am surfing the White House site, gaining a clearer picture of the direction that President Obama wants to take the nation. However things should unfold, I certainly hope that his “change has come” message includes a level of civility that brings Americans together, not divides us.

Macon Phillips, the Director of New Media for the White House, is the person behind the new site and the blog — let’s hope that he pays close attention to every memo from his boss encouraging civil discourse. That, my friends, would be a change for the better.