Mr. President — Try for Less TV, Fewer Excuses
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on September 29, 2009
The bloom is definitely off the rose when The One is admonished by a major liberal publication like Newsweek.
The same Newsweek that employs Evan Thomas, who a scant three months ago, said that Obama was “god-like.”
Encore video…
Newsweek’s Evan Thomas: Obama Is Above Us All, “Sort of” God
That was back in early June… this Newsweek article is from September 26.
From Newsweek:
The Limits of Charisma – Mr. President, please stay off TV
By Howard Fineman
September 26, 2009If ubiquity were the measure of a presidency, Barack Obama would already be grinning at us from Mount Rushmore. But of course it is not. Despite his many words and television appearances, our elegant and eloquent president remains more an emblem of change than an agent of it. He’s a man with an endless, worthy to-do list—health care, climate change, bank reform, global capital regulation, AfPak, the Middle East, you name it—but, as yet, no boxes checked “done.” This is a problem that style will not fix. Unless Obama learns to rely less on charm, rhetoric, and good intentions and more on picking his spots and winning in political combat, he’s not going to be reelected, let alone enshrined in South Dakota.
The president’s problem isn’t that he is too visible; it’s the lack of content in what he says when he keeps showing up on the tube. Obama can seem a mite too impressed with his own aura, as if his presence on the stage is the Answer. There is, at times, a self-referential (even self-reverential) tone in his big speeches. They are heavily salted with the words “I” and “my.” (He used the former 11 times in the first few paragraphs of his address to the U.N. last week.) Obama is a historic figure, but that is the beginning, not the end, of the story.
There is only so much political mileage that can still be had by his reminding the world that he is not George W. Bush. It was the winning theme of the 2008 campaign, but that race ended nearly a year ago. The ex-president is now more ex than ever, yet the current president, who vowed to look forward, is still reaching back to Bush as bogeyman.
He did it again in that U.N. speech. The delegates wanted to know what the president was going to do about Israel and the Palestinian territories. He answered by telling them what his predecessor had failed to do. This was effective for his first month or two. Now it is starting to sound more like an excuse than an explanation.
Members of Obama’s own party know who Obama is not; they still sometimes wonder who he really is. In Washington, the appearance of uncertainty is taken as weakness—especially on Capitol Hill, where a president is only as revered as he is feared. Being the cool, convivial late-night-guest in chief won’t cut it with Congress, an institution impervious to charm (especially the charm of a president with wavering poll numbers). Members of both parties are taking Obama’s measure with their defiant and sometimes hostile response to his desires on health care. Never much of a legislator (and not long a senator), Obama underestimated the complexity of enacting a major “reform” bill. Letting Congress try to write it on its own was an awful idea. As a balkanized land of microfiefdoms, each loyal to its own lobbyists and consultants, Congress is incapable of being led by its “leadership.” It’s not like Chicago, where you call a guy who calls a guy who calls Daley, who makes the call. The president himself must make his wishes clear—along with the consequences for those who fail to grant them…
Commentary from HotAir:
Republican strategist Kevin Madden insists… Obama is risking overexposure in televisionland:
“I think the worry is it’s gone beyond over exposure and now we have what I would call the ‘Obama omnipresence.’ You almost can’t escape this president. It goes beyond just cable news and it goes into whether or not you’re flipping on ESPN and you’re seeing him talk about basketball or you turn on the Lifetime channel and you hear what Michelle Obama is wearing this week. And I think that begins to wear on a lot of people.”
Related reading:
Autographed Letter Signed: Daily Devotionals for Moonbats
Washington Post: Obama to Hit Sunday Talk Show Circuit – 5 Sunday Appearances Raise Familiar Issue of Overexposure
Robert A. Bonelli, American Thinker: Who is doing the governing?
Richard Cohen, Washington Post: Time to Act Like a President
Baltimore Sun Forum: Is Obama on TV too much?
Andrew B. Wilson, The American Spectator, Polonius POTUS
Gazzer’s Gabfest: President Stink-Eye?
Time Magazine: Why Is Obama’s Middle Name Taboo?
Frugal Café Blog Zone: Obama’s “Projection of Appealing Images” — Rove’s WSJ Analysis of Obama’s Flip-Flops and Governance and Dragnet’s Sgt. Friday to Obama: “Don’t Try to Build a New Country, Make the Old One Work” (video) and Exposed: Laws Broken, White House Used NEA to Ramrod Obama’s Agenda, ACORN Offshoot “United We Serve” Org Involved, and More
Jake Tapper, ABC News: Obama Overload? President to Do ‘Full Ginsburg’ Sunday
Marc Sheppard, American Thinker: UN Climate Reports: They Lie
Hot Air Greenroom: Too Much Obama Can Be Hazardous to the President’s Health
Sister Toldjah: Great advice on the left’s race-card playing
Lauri B. Regan, American Thinker: The History Lesson Obama Missed
Breitbart: Senate panel rejects gov’t-run insurance option
Myrna Sokoloff, Big Hollywood: ‘The Smile’: A Perfect Presidential Nickname
Ohiobelle: OBAMA AND HIS LIES…
Philip Klein, American Spectator: Obama’s Media Blitz Doesn’t Help Approval Rating
Noel Sheppard, NewsBusters: Howard Fineman: Enough TV, Mr. President. How About Governing?
Steven Crowder, Big Hollywood: Lonewolf Diaries: The Obama Era is Over
The Patriot’s Mind: Is Obama playing Godfather with the CBO?
Scared Monkeys: Why Isn’t President Barack Obama Interested in Child Sex Slaves and Human Trafficking or Find it Important?
Political Byline: A must read for all Conservatives and, Yes, Blacks too!
Moonbat Patrol: Obama’s Plan, Sell The Smile, Detract, Confuse, Media Blitz A Ploy To Kill Momentum Against Health Care Plan
Townhall.com: With ObamaCare in a Hole, Will the White House Stop Digging?
Publius, Big Government: Is Breitbart More Powerful than ACORN?
The American Spectator: The People Ain’t Happy With the President
Doug O’Brien, Big Government: Obama and Health Care: The Silver Tongue Versus the Tin Ear
Patterico, Big Hollywood: The NEA, The White House, The Lies and The Cover-Up
Nice Deb: We Just Don’t Know What’s Good For Us
The Washington Times: Revealed: Partial list of August 10 National Endowment for the Arts conference call participants
Dana Loesch, Big Government: Taxpayer Funded Serve.gov Filtering Activists to ACORN
The American Prospect: The Three Audiences Obama Has to Please
The Weekly Standard: People Power
Michelle Malkin: Why parents don’t trust the Educator-in-Chief and his comrades and I repeat: It’s not the speech, it’s the subtext
Desert Conservative: Obama…Charm with no SUBSTANCE
GayPatriot: Did Obama supporters assume that their guy’s election meant opposition would cease*?
Dr. Paul Moreno, Big Government: Obama’s Paper Chase
The Underground Conservative: Peak Disapproval For Obama and ObamaCare
Hot Air: What’s in the White House’s ObamaCare bill?
The Daley Gator: Your Non-Biased Media Moment of the Day
Amused Cynic: “Redistributive Change:” The Silent Coup….
About the author
[...] Warrantonegirl: Youth Unemployment at 52.2% Post “Stimulus” Frugal Cafe: Mr. President,—Try for Less TV, Fewer Excuses Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)Obama is putting the muscle on NY Govenor Paterson [...]
I Can;t refer too Mr. Obama as Presdent because his behavior is far from Presdential. HEY OBAMA!!!!! Troops are dying while you sit in front of a camera and you and your wife take trips to boost your friends pockets on my tax dollar. TROOPS, OUR YOUNG AMERICANS–OUR CHILDREN NEED YOUR SUPPORT NOT THE OLYMPIC’S IN CORRUPT CHICAGO. SEND THEM HOME OR GET SOME TOO FIGHT A WAR TOO WIN.
He is giving people too much ammunition….
To top it all off, how much did it cost to send him to campaign for the Olympics?
Are the taxpayers of Chicago going reimburse us?
[...] of the Day Amused Cynic: “Redistributive Change:” The Silent Coup…. Frugal Café Blog Zone: Mr. President — Try for Less TV, Fewer Excuses and Overexposed & Overhyped: Too Much Obama in Prime-Time and Obama’s “Projection of [...]