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(CNN) — A lot of media outlets made a big deal out of the mostly white White House press corps covering the first black president, and those stories were worth pursuing.

Any of us in the business knows full well that those are considered plum jobs and are a steppingstone to greater things. But while we hold the media accountable for the need to diversify their ranks, it’s quite telling to see the lack of diversity in the White House’s press office.

I got an e-mail Tuesday listing all of the various press folks and contact information, and it became clear that there were hardly any African-Americans or Hispanics on the staff.

Unfortunately, this shouldn’t come as a shock, because the campaign press staff of then-Sen. Barack Obama was just as weak on diversity.

Just because there is a black president doesn’t mean that issues like diversity should be cast aside. President Obama should be held to the same standard when it comes to this issue as any other occupier of that office. I am a former national board member of the National Association of Black Journalists, and my support for diversity never wavers, no matter who is running the show.

One of the reasons this is important is because just like in the media, where there are bigger and better things awaiting the White House correspondent, a position in the White House press office positions someone for the next level.

When the press secretary leaves, the president normally chooses the next one from those ranks. We’ve never seen a black or Hispanic press secretary standing at the podium each day giving daily briefings, and when there are none on the bench, well, that streak will continue.

Looking at the roster of other offices, I don’t believe there’s even one African-American or Hispanic who is the primary spokesman or number two at any of the major departments, such as Treasury, State, and Justice.

These coveted positions often lead to the top jobs in communications firms in Washington and around the country, and even junior staffers now are tapped for senior jobs in the next administration (Look at how many junior staffers on President Bill Clinton’s team are now senior staffers for President Barack Obama).

Various reports have stated that Obama was bothered by the lack of diversity among his campaign team, yet he wasn’t moved to do anything about it. Now I’m hearing the same when it comes to his senior staff, and that is clearly the case in his press office.

The election of President Barack Obama means that one barrier, albeit a major one, has been torn down. But that doesn’t mean that others don’t need to come tumbling down as well. For those groups that have often been marginalized, it’s important to have the doors of opportunity opened.

If diversity truly matters, then it must be emphasized and realized top down. The company leaders in corporate diversity got there because the CEO made it clear that it mattered, and they demanded their underlings make it a reality.

Al Neuharth is a prime example. Were it not for his fierce leadership on diversity, Gannett would have never outpaced the media industry when it comes to minorities and women being publishers, general managers and executives among the company’s media properties. He set the gold standard for advocating diversity in media.

If change is truly what this president wants to bring to bear, let’s see change across the board. He should make it clear that the clubby atmosphere in Washington of hire-who-you-know has gone out the window, and that window has been opened up for the next generation of talented individuals. The power positions matter a lot in the nation’s capital, and when you have a seat at the table, that’s what counts.

I’m used to getting e-mails from folks who will say it’s wrong for me to look at this through a racial lens and that we now live in a post-racial world. But if I got an e-mail listing all men, trust me, I would be the first to ask, “Where are the women?” If I’ve pushed the need for diversity at every mainstream media operation I’ve worked at, including CNN, why would I be silent about it in an Obama administration?

I’ve been told that not all hiring has been completed in the White House press office and in other areas. OK, fine. But the A-team has clearly been hired, and that means anyone else coming in the door is on the B-team. And that just won’t cut it.

Diversity has tremendous value in this country, and you don’t get there by lauding it. You get there by doing it. And that challenge should be met by any and every CEO, whether they are black or white, Fortune 500 or the president of the United States.

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WASHINGTON – Barack Obama on Tuesday abruptly abandoned his nomination fight for Tom Daschle and a second major appointee who failed to pay all their taxes, fearing a lingering ethics dispute would undercut his claims to moral high ground and cripple his presidency in just its second week. “I screwed up,” Obama declared.

“It’s important for this administration to send a message that there aren’t two sets of rules — you know, one for prominent people and one for ordinary folks who have to pay their taxes,” Obama said near the end of a day of jarring developments, little more than 24 hours after he had said he was “absolutely” committed to Daschle’s confirmation.

“I’m frustrated with myself, with our team. … I’m here on television saying I screwed up,” Obama said on NBC’s “Nightly News with Brian Williams.” He repeated virtually the same words in interviews with other TV anchors.

Hours earlier, the White House had announced that Daschle had asked to be removed from consideration as health and human services secretary and that Nancy Killefer had made the same request concerning what was to be her groundbreaking appointment as a chief performance officer to make the entire government run better.

Daschle said in a brief letter to Obama that he refused to “be a distraction” from the new president’s drive for health care reform. Obama said neither he nor Daschle excused the former Senate Democratic leader’s tax errors but that he accepted his friend’s decision “with sadness and regret.”

Unsightly personal tax problems had been piling up for the new administration. Last week, the Senate confirmed Timothy Geithner as treasury secretary, but only after days of controversy over the fact that the man who would oversee the Internal Revenue Service had only belatedly paid $34,000 in income taxes.

Bill Richardson bowed out, too, though his difficulties didn’t involve personal taxes. The New Mexico governor, who was Obama’s first choice for commerce secretary, withdrew amid a grand jury investigation into a state contract awarded to his political donors.

Questions about Daschle’s failure to fully pay his taxes from 2005 through 2007 had been increasing since they came to light last Friday. Daschle overlooked taxes on income for consulting work and personal use of a car and driver, and also deducted more in charitable contributions than he should have. To resolve it, he paid $128,203 in back taxes and $11,964 in interest last month.

Daschle, chosen to lead the administration’s push for sweeping health care reform, also was facing questions about potential conflicts of interests related to speaking fees he accepted from health care interests and about the advice he provided to health insurers and hospitals through his work at a law firm.

Killefer, an executive with consulting giant McKinsey & Co., had been chosen by Obama to serve in two roles: as the first chief performance officer in a White House and as a deputy director at the Office of Management and Budget.

When Obama announced Killefer to much fanfare in early January, The Associated Press reported that the District of Columbia government had filed a $946.69 tax lien on her home in 2005 for failure to pay unemployment compensation tax on household help. She resolved the tax error five months after the lien was filed. Since then, administration officials had refused to say whether her tax problems extended beyond that one issue.

By Tuesday, the tax questions had reached critical mass.

“This is a self-induced injury that I’m angry about, and we’re going to make sure we get it fixed,” Obama said on ABC’s “World News.”

Earlier, he made sure to get in a brighter few minutes. With little notice, the president and first lady Michelle Obama left to visit some second-graders at a Washington public school, where she told the laughing youngsters, “We got out! They let us out!”

Back at the White House, press secretary Robert Gibbs said the choice to step aside was Daschle’s alone and the former senator “did not get a signal” from the White House to do so. Daschle and Obama spoke Tuesday, and the president was surprised at the news, said White House senior adviser David Axelrod.

Democratic lawmakers were surprised, too — and disappointed. Axelrod rushed to Capitol Hill to soothe frayed nerves.

“I was a little stunned. I thought he was going to get confirmed,” said Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, the panel that would have voted on Daschle’s nomination. “It’s regrettable.”

Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and Daschle’s former Democratic colleagues had leapt to the former Democratic leader’s defense. And it seemed that the clubby way that senators treat one of their own was likely to help Daschle survive the controversy.

But particularly after the divisive Geithner debate and vote, it apparently became too bitter a pill. Tax issues are easy for the public to understand, and also particularly easy to resent in wealthy officials at a time of widespread economic crisis.

They also created an opening for a drumbeat of criticism from Republicans and on newspaper editorial pages that Obama was engaging in a double standard: proclaiming his administration to be more ethical, responsible and special interest-free than his predecessors’ and yet carving out exceptions almost daily.

GOP Sen. John Ensign of Nevada said Daschle was going to be faced with tough questions from committee members, among them how the wealth he amassed from a lobbying firm — while not technically registered as a lobbyist — “passes the smell test.”

“I think he saved the president from being embarrassed next week in a public hearing,” Ensign said.

But even while Obama aimed to stave off potentially crippling problems in one corner with the withdrawals, he created some new ones.

Obama has promised that moving toward universal health care coverage is one of the pillars of first 100 days agenda — a heavy lift that many believed Daschle, with his long experience in Washington, was uniquely qualified for. Daschle was going to wear two hats for Obama, as White House health czar on top of the post leading the Health and Human Services Department.

“We’re going to do health care reform,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said flatly after the nomination withdrawal. But others reacted differently.

“It really sets us back a step,” said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill. “Because he was such a talent. I mean he understood Congress, serving in the House and Senate he certainly had the confidence of the president.”

Among those considered for the post before it went to Daschle was Howard Dean, the physician-turned-politician who ran for president in 2004 and recently left as head of the Democratic National Committee. Other possible replacements include Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, and Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland.

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CANEYVILLE, Ky. – Kentucky’s governor warned it will be “a long haul” before life returns to normal after last week’s deadly ice storm, even as crews fitfully restored power and cleared debris in the state’s two largest cities.

Officials in Lexington and Louisville reported progress, and Lexington Mayor Jim Newberry deactivated the city’s Emergency Operations Center on Sunday evening after a sharp drop in the number of homes without electricity.

Residents in more remote areas, particularly in western Kentucky, are looking at a more uncertain future shivering in homes without electricity and heat. Thousands of National Guard troops, some wielding chainsaws, cleared out debris-ridden communities and rolled through neighborhoods in Humvees to deliver chili and stew rations to relieved residents.

“The kids were looking out the windows and yelling, ‘Yay! We’re saved!’” said Bryan Bowling, 30, who’s been hunkering down with 18 people next to a fireplace inside his generator-powered home in rural Grayson county, some 90 miles southwest of Louisville.

“It’s just good to know that people care,” said Bowling, who has a 7-year-old and a 4-year-old.

Kentucky was hit hardest by the winter blast, which has been blamed for more than 40 deaths in nine states from the Ozarks to Appalachia. Officials confirmed at least 16 deaths in Kentucky, most from traffic crashes, hypothermia and carbon monoxide poisoning from improperly used generators.

Arkansas, Indiana and other states lashed by the storm were also working to recover. Crews in Arkansas worked to rebuild parts of the system to restore power to some 130,000 customers, and nearly 25,000 homes and businesses in Indiana remained without power.

At its height, the storm knocked out power to 1.3 million customers from the Southern Plains to the East Coast. More than 700,000 of those were in Kentucky — a state record — but by Sunday night, that figure had dropped to less than half that. Still, it could be weeks before some people have power again.

“It’s going to be a long haul for us,” Gov. Steve Beshear said Sunday as he toured hard-hit areas in and around Elizabethtown. “We’ve thrown everything we have at it. We’re going to continue to do that until everyone is back in their homes and back on their feet.”

By Sunday night, 93 of Kentucky’s 120 counties along with 71 cities had declared a state of emergency, according to Monica French, a spokeswoman for the Kentucky Division of Emergency Management.

The 4,600 soldiers Beshear ordered on duty, including his entire Army National Guard, swept through the state distributing food and water, removing fallen trees, providing security and checking houses in hard-to-reach areas.

In Hardinsburg, one door-to-door check of houses without electricity is being credited for saving the lives of an elderly couple. The Kentucky National Guard said in a press release that two airmen visited the couple’s home Sunday and found the wife apparently confused and the husband complaining of nausea.

Both were treated and released at a hospital. Authorities said carbon monoxide levels were more than twice what is considered lethal, and blamed the poisoning on a faulty gas furnace.

Diana Burba was among thousands of people who received cases of bottled water from the National Guard. Burba has no power, and she can’t drink the muck coming out of her faucet.

“It’s like muddy water comes out,” Burba said in her Bonnieville mobile home.

“You don’t know how much you depend on it,” she said of amenities like clean water and electricity. “When you don’t have it, life kind of halts.”

The troops, utility workers and good-natured civilians took advantage of temperatures near 50 across much of the region to make headway on repairs. The National Weather Service warned the melt could cause some flooding, but temperatures could dip back into the 20s and teens by Monday night.

Still, the governor praised the resilience of residents in dire need, even as they faced the prospect of a long thaw.

In the town of Clinton, tucked in the tip of western Kentucky, Spc. Michael Hagan had yet to find a person in need of help after four hours of searching, but he said he’d keep knocking on doors.

“I told my sergeant if I have to walk one more hill, my feet are going to fall off,” said the 23-year-old guardsman, who returned from 18 months in Iraq in December. “But it’s good to be sure people are all right.”

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Boss urges viewers to ‘put the chicken fingers down,’ rocks stadium

Bruce Springsteen looked into the camera Sunday night and told the people watching at home to “put the chicken fingers down and turn the television all the way up!”

Springsteen then threw himself into his four-song set, a highly anticipated series of songs that had Las Vegas oddsmakers taking bets on which tunes he’d select. He opened with “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out,” and worked in one of his trademark across-the-stage knee slides.

The move wasn’t without risk: He slid into one of the on-stage cameras, and seemed to be winded when he transitioned into “Born to Run.”

Next up was his newest piece, “Working on a Dream,” which was backed by a choir. He then closed out with a playful version of “Glory Days” that fittingly altered the lyrics to fit the occasion: Springsteen’s old high school buddy was “a big football player” instead of “baseball,” and threw a “Hail Mary” instead of a “speed ball.”

He and guitarist Steven Van Zandt then toyed with the crowd as the show came to an end, looking at their watches as the clock wound down. Worried they were about to hit “penalty time,” (a referee even raced out and threw a yellow flag), they closed it out right on time.

“I’m going to Disneyland!” the 59-year-old rocker shouted at the end.

Springsteen is riding a new wave of exposure and popularity, playing for President Barack Obama in Washington before the inauguration, releasing his 24th album this week and winning a Golden Globe award for his song from the Mickey Rourke movie “The Wrestler.”

In 1988, Chubby Checker was the first popular musician to perform at halftime, and Michael Jackson raised the bar in 1993. His sister Janet provided the show’s most infamous moment with 2004’s “wardrobe malfunction.”

The show was directed by Don Mischer, who has directed opening and closing ceremonies for two Olympic Games, as well as last month’s inauguration concert at the Lincoln Memorial.

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