Evidently, researchers have determined that President Obama has made more media appearances at this point in his presidency than any of his predecessors. In fact, some critics can be forgiven the impression that he’s doing more to compete with the likes of the “Octomom” and Lindsay Lohan for media coverage than to fix the ailing US economy.
Of course, with Obama writing newspaper editorials, publishing podcasts, conducting town hall meetings, doing late-night talk shows, and appearing on enough magazine covers to make supermodels green with envy, we did not need media researchers to tell us that he risks being overexposed.
But I have no doubt that if Obama was instead hiding out in the Oval Office the way George W. Bush did during periods of crisis, these same pundits would be lampooning him as the “invisible man.”
Could he have made fewer appearances? I think so. For example, he did not have to command air time to announce every Cabinet nomination – especially since, with the possible exception of the State and Justice, most Americans couldn’t care any less who heads these various departments.
In his defense, however, Obama has clearly made the very reasonable political calculation that the more he acts like explainer in chief, the more confidence he will inspire in his plan for economic recovery and reinvestment. And given the complex and unprecedented nature of this global financial crisis we’re facing, this seems a very sensible calculation. Not to mention poll numbers which indicate that the American people just can’t get enough of him….
Accordingly, I’m sure the press conference he held last night furthered this keep-the-people-informed-and-reassured political strategy; notwithstanding that his answers to questions about corporate bailouts and bonuses have become so familiar that a few of us can recite them almost verbatim.
All the same, one exciting moment came when CNN reporter Ed Henry posited that the New York attorney general, Andrew Cuomo, was doing a better job of extracting concessions from the bonus pigs at AIG than the White House. And, frankly, Henry was making a salient point and seemed to have Obama back on his heels. But then he followed up by effectively badgering the president to explain why, when everyone else vented outrage immediately, it took him several days to voice his anger. This prompted the “I’ll-bend-but-not-break” Obama to respond with icy indignation as follows:
It took a couple of days because I like to know what I’m talking about before I speak… [Next question]!
Ouch!
Incidentally, this was the second prime-time press conference Obama has given during his short, 64-day presidency. By comparison, both Bush and Clinton gave only 4 such press conferences during their 8-year presidencies, respectively. But if Obama’s mug is this ubiquitous in the fall, I too will hold him in contempt.
That said, I shall end with a little gripe of my own in this respect by reiterating a note iPINIONS appended to a commentary on his address before a Joint Session of Congress a month ago today:
Am I the only one who finds it irritating that Obama can never leave a room gracefully? Why does he have to shake so many hands – as if he’s working the line at a campaign rally?! This was the U.S. Congress for Christ’s sake! In fact, he was still in the chamber, reaching 10 deep to shake hands with other politicians, after every other dignitary, like his VP and even Hillary, had already left.
Frankly, someone should inform him that, to preserve the aura of, and what little mystique is left in, the presidency, he should always be the last to enter and the first to leave a room.
[Obama … offers hope in address before Joint Session of Congress, TIJ, February 25, 2009]
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Obama … offers hope in address before Joint Session of Congress
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