Pres. Obama Appears to Still Be Everywhere… but He’s Ducking the WH Press Corps
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on December 1, 2009
Pres. Obama appears to still be everywhere... but is reportedly ducking the White House Press Corps
Apparently, we’ve seen much less of our camera-loving Pres. Obama on TV than we used to… huh? Could’ve fooled me.
Must be like hearing an annoying song on the radio. Even when it’s not playing, the tortuous assault in your brain lingers for days. Instead of “music torture,” it’s “overexposed Obama torture.”
Mr. President, why are you avoiding the White House Press Corps?
From Washington Times: ‘Overexposed’ Obama begins to duck the WH press corps:
After months of what some critics called overexposure, President Obama has of late avoided questions from the White House press corps at large, closing the Oval Office to traditionally informal question-and-answer sessions with reporters and pulling back from the fast pace of news conferences he established when taking office.
The president, whose job-approval ratings have been on a steady slide, hasn’t held a formal news conference in 19 weeks, since July 22. That one ended badly, when Mr. Obama waded into a racial controversy by saying a white police officer “acted stupidly” when he arrested a black Harvard professor.
“It can’t be a total coincidence that the last time he faced the press corps, we ended with beers in the Rose Garden with Henry Louis Gates and James Crowley, when the focus was supposed to be health care,” said Julie Mason, a White House reporter for the Washington Examiner who also covered the Bush administration for the Houston Chronicle.
“It does seem like they are responding to the overexposure argument and trying to exert more control over his appearances,” she said.
Veteran White House reporters have been grumbling about the lack of access to the president, who as a candidate vowed an unprecedented level of transparency.
On his recent trip to Asia, Mr. Obama took few questions – and none during a session with Chinese President Hu Jintao that the White House dubbed “joint press statements.”
Mr. Obama has taken to limiting questions during press conferences with foreign leaders to one question each from U.S. reporters and foreign correspondents, as he did last week when Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was in Washington. He did the same “one-and-one” with the Japanese prime minister and the South Korean president while in Asia.
In a more unusual move, the president has altered the practice of allowing reporters into the Oval Office for what is called a “pool spray” – a few informal questions after a presidential meeting, often with a foreign leader. Mr. Obama’s meeting Monday with Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was closed to the press, even photographers, the White House said.
CBS News: Obama Overexposure | September 2009
Related reading:
Frugal Café Blog Zone: It’s Always Showtime in the White House… Obama’s Continual Media Blitz (op-ed cartoons) and Mr. President — Try for Less TV, Fewer Excuses and Overexposed & Overhyped: Too Much Obama in Prime-Time and 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)
Token Conservative: The Overexposed President
Gateway Pundit: Obama Can’t Resist – Will Appear on TV Super Bowl Sunday
GayPatriot: The Day Obama Became “Old News”
The Black Sphere Blog: Obama Losing Luster?
Moonbat Patrol: Obama’s Plan, Sell The Smile, Detract, Confuse, Media Blitz A Ploy To Kill Momentum Against Health Care Plan
Instapundit: TELEGRAPH: The U.N. Loves Barack Obama Because He Is Weak.
Baltimore Sun Forum: Is Obama on TV too much?
Autographed Letter Signed: Daily Devotionals for Moonbats
Robert A. Bonelli, American Thinker: Who is doing the governing?
Gary Graham, Big Hollywood: The War of Words — Why We’re Losing
Richard Cohen, Washington Post: Time to Act Like a President
Andrew B. Wilson, The American Spectator, Polonius POTUS
Jake Tapper, ABC News: Obama Overload? President to Do ‘Full Ginsburg’ Sunday
Hot Air Greenroom: Too Much Obama Can Be Hazardous to the President’s Health
Lauri B. Regan, American Thinker: The History Lesson Obama Missed
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?
Stage Right, Big Hollywood: Part II: Obama Controls Your Televison Set — Search and Ye Shall Find…Left-Wing Advocacy
Political Byline: A must read for all Conservatives and, Yes, Blacks too!
Gazzer’s Gabfest: President Stink-Eye?
The American Spectator: The People Ain’t Happy With the President
Patterico, Big Hollywood: The NEA, The White House, The Lies and The Cover-Up
The American Prospect: The Three Audiences Obama Has to Please
The Weekly Standard: People Power
Desert Conservative: Obama…Charm with no SUBSTANCE
Dr. Paul Moreno, Big Government: Obama’s Paper Chase
The Underground Conservative: Peak Disapproval For Obama and ObamaCare
The Daley Gator: Your Non-Biased Media Moment of the Day
Amused Cynic: “Redistributive Change:” The Silent Coup….
Michelle Malkin: Why parents don’t trust the Educator-in-Chief and his comrades
About the author
[...] Cafe: Pres. Obama Appears to Still Be Everywhere… but He’s Ducking the WH Press Corps and It’s Over: Cop Killer Clemmons Fatally Shot by WA Police, Huckabee Still Blamed for His Role [...]
He is being shielded from the public, except for controlled circumstances.
He is liable to speak freely to the media at an inopportune time, exposing facts that are not applicable to the agenda that has been set in place by the man on the Blackberry.
I would submit that the Blackberry connection is, or is very close to the teleprompter.