Is Barack Obama trying to hide some innate shyness? After being on 60 Minutes almost as often as Andy Rooney and rivaling Oprah on weekday TV, the President will go for overexposure records with five Sunday talk shows tomorrow to be followed by Letterman Monday night.
The All Obama All the Time blitz is meant to explain and sell health care reform to confused Americans, but it calls up that ancient resistance to argument, "Don't bother me with facts, I've made up my mind."
Can one more rational explanation, or a dozen, undo the visceral resistance stirred up by lies and half-truths about government control crafted from thousands of pages about taxing, mandates, rationing, deficits et al?
Can any rewording of "If you like your current insurance, you can keep it" calm rampant fears about bureaucrats deciding who gets what treatment?
Can any appeal to American decency to care for "the least of these" erase suspicions that coverage for millions of uninsured will deprive current premium payers of medical attention they have been buying for years?
In the eight months of his presidency, Barack Obama has been piloting the ship of state through perilous waters, repeatedly being forced to unload billions on stimulus bills, bank bailouts and carmaker rescues to keep predators from swamping us all.
So far, his exertions have kept most Americans on board, as worried as they may be, and there are some early signs of success, but the swelling wave of ideological opposition to his health care legislation--whatever it finally turns out to be--is threatening his presidency.
The President has made his case over and over again. This weekend he risks jumping the shark with too many installments of a show that has run its course.
It seems past time for the White House to stop trying to persuade the unpersuadable and concentrate on working behind the Congressional scenes to salvage some semblance of true reform and, in Paul Krugman's words, "make some hard choices about the degree of disappointment they’re willing to live with."
Showing posts with label Obama media blitz. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Obama media blitz. Show all posts
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Obama Online
The President is working the crowds again this morning, but this time he's telecommuting to the job with what the White House is calling an online town hall. ("It's a way for the president to do what he enjoys doing out on the road but saves on gas," says press secretary Robert Gibbs.)
The session, called "Open for Questions," is the next logical step in the All-Obama-All-the-Time presidency. By the deadline for voting, 91,000 people had submitted more than 103,000 questions and more than 3.5 million had cast votes for their favorites.
Most, of course, were about the economy and financial crisis, but special-interest groups were active, as reflected in the question of whether he favors the pending California bill to legalize marijuana.
It's a commentary on what's happening to American media that everyone but newspaper reporters has been grilling the President in his information blitz over the past week, but the New York Times and Los Angeles Times blogs will be live-posting on the Internet Town Hall here and here.
No more time for kibbutzing here. Have to go watch and listen.
Update: The man is mesmerizing, no doubt about that. His ability to reach out and connect with people should be bottled and made available to all politicians, but only if they qualify by having a reasonable facsimile of his intelligence and empathy. Leavening an hour and a half of wonk talk with anecdotes about his mother's terminal illness and his daughter's experience of a spinal tap, Obama showed today why presidents from here on will have to reach a new level as communicators. The dangers of demagoguery are obvious, but at the very least, the days of Empty Suits like George W. Bush are over
The session, called "Open for Questions," is the next logical step in the All-Obama-All-the-Time presidency. By the deadline for voting, 91,000 people had submitted more than 103,000 questions and more than 3.5 million had cast votes for their favorites.
Most, of course, were about the economy and financial crisis, but special-interest groups were active, as reflected in the question of whether he favors the pending California bill to legalize marijuana.
It's a commentary on what's happening to American media that everyone but newspaper reporters has been grilling the President in his information blitz over the past week, but the New York Times and Los Angeles Times blogs will be live-posting on the Internet Town Hall here and here.
No more time for kibbutzing here. Have to go watch and listen.
Update: The man is mesmerizing, no doubt about that. His ability to reach out and connect with people should be bottled and made available to all politicians, but only if they qualify by having a reasonable facsimile of his intelligence and empathy. Leavening an hour and a half of wonk talk with anecdotes about his mother's terminal illness and his daughter's experience of a spinal tap, Obama showed today why presidents from here on will have to reach a new level as communicators. The dangers of demagoguery are obvious, but at the very least, the days of Empty Suits like George W. Bush are over
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Ubiquitous Obama
If we were paying the President by the hour, the economic crisis would be worse. After the Tonight Show, 60 Minutes and town halls everywhere, we get a prime-time news conference this evening.
If that sounds like a complaint, it isn't. In this time of multiple anxieties, Barack Obama, despite the inevitability of falling approval ratings, has succeeded brilliantly as Comforter-in-Chief.
With his remarkable capacity to put mixed feelings into context (i.e., the AIG bonuses are an outrage, but we can't afford to govern out of anger and then helping bury the nutty House tax bill), Obama is just the President we need psychologically at this moment, no matter what reservations we may have about specific moves such as the stimulus and the bank bailout.
"Obama Dials Down Wall Street Criticism" proclaims the Wall Street Journal today, as he reaches out for a public-private answer to the credit crunch, the latest step in his progress from defining the problem to trying to solve it.
Frustrated Republicans are reduced to sneers and nitpicking. As Carl Ericson observes at Simply Left Behind: "It's driving his opponents crazy. Obama has at once lifted himself above the fray while encouraging the fray using surrogates. The more conservatives focus on Obama's miscues and teleprompters, the more the American people will understand that the GOP offers no rational alternative at this time, that they are spinning their wheels waiting for an opportunity to seize the upper hand on an issue of substance."
In advance of the G20 economic summit next week, the President is going global with his ubiquity. In an OpEd today running in 31 countries around the world, he writes:
"We are living through a time of global economic challenges that cannot be met by half measures or the isolated efforts of any nation. Now, the leaders of the Group of 20 have a responsibility to take bold, comprehensive and coordinated action that not only jump-starts recovery, but also launches a new era of economic engagement to prevent a crisis like this from ever happening again."
No matter what final grades he gets from history, Obama has already earned his A for effort.
If that sounds like a complaint, it isn't. In this time of multiple anxieties, Barack Obama, despite the inevitability of falling approval ratings, has succeeded brilliantly as Comforter-in-Chief.
With his remarkable capacity to put mixed feelings into context (i.e., the AIG bonuses are an outrage, but we can't afford to govern out of anger and then helping bury the nutty House tax bill), Obama is just the President we need psychologically at this moment, no matter what reservations we may have about specific moves such as the stimulus and the bank bailout.
"Obama Dials Down Wall Street Criticism" proclaims the Wall Street Journal today, as he reaches out for a public-private answer to the credit crunch, the latest step in his progress from defining the problem to trying to solve it.
Frustrated Republicans are reduced to sneers and nitpicking. As Carl Ericson observes at Simply Left Behind: "It's driving his opponents crazy. Obama has at once lifted himself above the fray while encouraging the fray using surrogates. The more conservatives focus on Obama's miscues and teleprompters, the more the American people will understand that the GOP offers no rational alternative at this time, that they are spinning their wheels waiting for an opportunity to seize the upper hand on an issue of substance."
In advance of the G20 economic summit next week, the President is going global with his ubiquity. In an OpEd today running in 31 countries around the world, he writes:
"We are living through a time of global economic challenges that cannot be met by half measures or the isolated efforts of any nation. Now, the leaders of the Group of 20 have a responsibility to take bold, comprehensive and coordinated action that not only jump-starts recovery, but also launches a new era of economic engagement to prevent a crisis like this from ever happening again."
No matter what final grades he gets from history, Obama has already earned his A for effort.
Thursday, February 05, 2009
Overusing Obama
There is a tipping point somewhere in Barack Obama's media blitz on behalf of the stimulus bill that could damage his presidency beyond the immediate struggle to get legislation on his desk by next week.
The President is staking his hard-won mandate on a complicated, extravagant answer to national fear with an iffy argument: "Let's not make the perfect the enemy of the essential. Let's show people all over our country who are looking for leadership in this difficult time that we are equal to the task."
Welcoming Republican participation and serving them oatmeal cookies, Obama is offering himself in the role of a peacemaking warrior, and opinion polls are beginning to reflect that contradiction with doubts about rolling the dice for almost $1 trillion when no one is sure of what will and won't work in reviving the economy.
Moreover, the new President, as unBushlike as he can be, is nevertheless trying to persuade a public that is still reeling from the White House certitude that took us into Iraq. Change has come to Washington, but skepticism about political leadership is far from dead.
The encouraging news today is that, as the President continues his media offensive, there are bipartisan Senate efforts to examine the bill line by line and pare down and strip away dubious measures.
"So we have a choice to make," the President writes in a Washington Post OpEd. "We can once again let Washington's bad habits stand in the way of progress. Or we can pull together and say that in America, our destiny isn't written for us but by us. We can place good ideas ahead of old ideological battles, and a sense of purpose above the same narrow partisanship. We can act boldly to turn crisis into opportunity and, together, write the next great chapter in our history and meet the test of our time."
The rhetoric is inspiring, but voters will be forgiven for wanting this time to read all the fine print before going into battle. The Obama who campaigned on the issue of Change should expect no less.
The President is staking his hard-won mandate on a complicated, extravagant answer to national fear with an iffy argument: "Let's not make the perfect the enemy of the essential. Let's show people all over our country who are looking for leadership in this difficult time that we are equal to the task."
Welcoming Republican participation and serving them oatmeal cookies, Obama is offering himself in the role of a peacemaking warrior, and opinion polls are beginning to reflect that contradiction with doubts about rolling the dice for almost $1 trillion when no one is sure of what will and won't work in reviving the economy.
Moreover, the new President, as unBushlike as he can be, is nevertheless trying to persuade a public that is still reeling from the White House certitude that took us into Iraq. Change has come to Washington, but skepticism about political leadership is far from dead.
The encouraging news today is that, as the President continues his media offensive, there are bipartisan Senate efforts to examine the bill line by line and pare down and strip away dubious measures.
"So we have a choice to make," the President writes in a Washington Post OpEd. "We can once again let Washington's bad habits stand in the way of progress. Or we can pull together and say that in America, our destiny isn't written for us but by us. We can place good ideas ahead of old ideological battles, and a sense of purpose above the same narrow partisanship. We can act boldly to turn crisis into opportunity and, together, write the next great chapter in our history and meet the test of our time."
The rhetoric is inspiring, but voters will be forgiven for wanting this time to read all the fine print before going into battle. The Obama who campaigned on the issue of Change should expect no less.
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