He’s been in office only six months, but already there’s a strong sense of déjà vu around the way Americans are seeing and hearing from President Barack Obama.
The president keeps returning to the same communications tactics over and over, and all the pages of his PR playbook have one thing in common: a big dose of Obama.
His prime-time news conference Wednesday night, one of the standbys, brings his total to four. That’s the same number that George W. Bush did — in eight years as president.
But as Obama’s once-lofty approval ratings dip — and voters express skepticism over his plans for health care and the economy — the longevity of the White House’s go-to techniques is being put to the test. One challenge for Obama’s team in coming weeks: not overusing the president.
“They have to be careful about that,” said former Clinton press secretary Mike McCurry. “There are diminishing returns if you see the president too much. … Part of this is just because he’s fascinating and popular right now. Inevitably, they’re going to hit some potholes, and they’re going to have to adjust their strategy.”
One troubling sign for the White House: TV networks were slow to sign on to Wednesday’s prime-time news conference.
Well, what is the man saying? To comment on the frequency and ignore the message is disingenuous. Give me arguments against his points, or you are doing nothing to advance the debate and are just a news minstrel.
He is repeating himself to be heard over the roar of resistance to change. He will almost certainly have to change his tactics, but what he is trying to tell us is the same message. Why not talk about that?
Manchurian Candidate
Well, look. He’s obviously ahead of all the nutballs still sitting with 4:3, SD and lifetime black-and-white.
He’s saying he wants to fine you on Health care to the tune of at least $2,500 a year you moron. As far as I’m concerned he can suck it. He may think he’s solving a problem but all he’s doing is creating a new tax, which I’m sure he knows. Oh sure, you can avoid the fine if you have insurance but I see that as nothing more than pandering to the health care industry. Has no one called his ass out on the fact that his wife worked for the University of Chicago Hospitals making $273,618 in 2006? Who stands to benefit from this? Not us poor ‘ol taxpayers.
If Obama keeps this crap up the Statue of Liberty will have the quote, “Abandon hope, all ye who enter here!”
Comparing the frequency of his press conferences to Bush is silly…Bush was so bad in his first one that his handlers didn’t let him do any more for a long time. Whereas Clinton did them regularly, IIRC.
The artical was a waste of time. No point was made other than the author was demonstrating what he apparently was complaining about – overexposure.
Re last comment: I’m getting real tired of being told about the fatal intentions of a man who has said none of those things. All this anti-obama rhetoric is an endless font of crystal ball prophesies of disaster based on supposed intention that has nothing to do with what the man actually says.
From someone who left the Republican party because of their fanatic disregard for the truth.
Republican party….fanatic disregard for the truth.
Good observation. This started some time ago. But given the nature of Repubs, generalized: religious types who need an authority to tell them what to do and think…I wonder what the future holds. Their authorities are gasbags, clowns and nutcases, all of whom have a tenuous grip on reality. Their claim that they’re going to win back seats in 2010/2012 seems remotely possible if Obama over-reaches or has a complete meltdown, but logic says they’re going to lose even more seats if the Dems play it well enough (chances of that?). That leaves them an even smaller, angrier minority party, even further removed from reality. Should we hold an intervention? lol
When the ratings drop because the people have heard the message before, the networks will not pick up the feed. We will end up seeeing less of the President. This is news? Sound bites between celebrity gossip and reality shows are what the people really want. The white house should start a 24X7 reality show like Ed TV or the Truman Show. Or maybe a big brother/Survivor like show where we vote off cabinet members?
Terrific Headline on Drudge regarding Obama’s Prime Time Attempt to fool the voters again:
SOS
JB2, that’s reminiscent of GWB pushing for Social Security privatization. Or The War.
SSDD
Well at least we didn’t see headlines like:
Fiscal Ruin of the Western World Beckons…as budget deficits spiral
(July 18th issue of the Telegraph)
Republican party….fanatic disregard for the truth.
Democratic party….fanatic disregard for reality.
Not much difference here.
I like it when a leader stays in touch with the people.
The reason it is ‘shocking’ is that it compares to the “undisclosed bunker” philosophy of President Cheney.
As far as approval ratings go, they can on;ly go down and Reagan’s was worse.
He is young,
He will learn! 🙂
Why don’t I think we need to rush out reform heath care? (We do need to reform health care but that implies somebody with a brain takes the time and makes the effort to do something reasonable and prudent.)
TARP: We got what for this?
The Stimulus Program: Obama said we just had to pass the turd sight unseen instantly or we’d get 8% unemployment by now. We have now spent 7.7% of the money in this pork pie and we have over 9% I do believe.
Cap and Trade: This is an energy tax designed to end our use of fossil fuels. It will cause 3,000,000 jobs to vanish from our shores. Other countries are going to take those jobs and for the last few years the climate has been cooling. I checked. You can too.
Heath Care Reform: Must pass right away. Vote now read later. It will save money.
(The government number counters say it will run up the national dept with no savings.) Suggested ways to fund it. Require businesses to provide insurance to employies and they start trying to figure out how to cover the bill: temps, part time staff, take the money out of your pay check, fire people. Soak the rich starting with small business owners, Some people will be paying 47% of their income as income tax. Dump the bill on the states who don’t want it, cut benifits to seniors. Tax insurance provided by employers. Tax the crap out of people who don’t buy insurance. They are fexible about this. They don’t know what they are going to do but it won’t cover the bill.
I have just listented to Mrs. California say no cap on benifits. Every country with one of these things has a cap on benifits, picks your doctor, puts some treatments off limits, and if you want to see a doctor in a day rather than weeks you will still need private insurance. There is normally a rather long waiting line for anything major so if you have galstones expect to hurt for a few months.
Sure I should trust Obama and the Democrats. It’s not like they’ve lied to me before except every time they open their mouths.
All I can figure is they expect to get creamed in the next elections because of what they have done and they intend to do that will completely piss people off and want to do as much damage as they can before that happens. There is no way anyone with a working brain can think what they’ve been doing is in the best interest of the country.
What has Obama said?
He keeps apologizing for America continually supporting and saving the rest of the sorry-assed world.
He admitted that tax increases decrease revenue but wants to tax the successful anyway out of “fairness”.
He’s told us we can’t have nice houses and SUVs anymore.
He tells college kids to go into public service instead of building good lives for themselves.
The fact that anyone still believes anything this person says implies he really may be Nicolae Carpathia.
He has to say the stuff over and over, because it cant be substantiated. He even substantiates what he is doing is bad for the economy, and his administration has substantiated they are trying to prevent the economy from coming back! What a crock, he talks so much no one listens while he pushes stuff that is bad for the economy. Any who speak against his stuff are labeled negatively because they aren’t listening, the ones not listening are speaking positively because they aren’t listening. Crazy, just crazy.
I wish he would just get up there and tell the truth for once. Otherwise he is just a clown president who thinks the spotlight always has to be on him.
#17 T Asshead – you should listen to what he says directly!!
Listening interpretations from GOPshitheads.COM skews the message greatly.
It is easy to see those secretly are thankful Obama will rescue their health insurance.
Regardless of how the question is phrased, most Americans are not happy with the crap shoot we call health insurance now.
#1, Alix,
Well written comment.
My Grandfather once said: “…if a man repeats himself enough times, one day even he might believe what he’s been saying…”
When politician’s stop trying to stooge the public, Satan will be skating to work.
huh…the more he talks, the more his ratings plummet – ya think there might be a correlation there?
Can this man say ANYTHING truthful?
He’s a scape goat..
NOTHINg he does will be OK’d by the other 150 persons that were HIRED to represent US.
The only way Obama is going to get his WAY, is if he Brings it to the PEOPLE and gets US/WE to beat our representatives into LETTING HIM DO IT.
For all the money most of the upper pay’d people get, many will get fired.
If the Corp files bankruptcy, his retirement and medical are GONE.
AS A RICH person he paid his OWN, and not into Social security. NOW, as a poor person he can GET Social security, and medical coverage, that HE didnt pay for. He might loose his homes, and alot of his cars..but he STILL GETS COVERAGE..
27,
Can you say anything intelligent?
Point out something you disagree with that Obama actually said, and maybe we can start a conversation.