In my latest for the Guardian, I ponder the possibility that President Obama, with his health-care forum on ABC News as the latest example, may have just about reached the media-oversaturation point.
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O-FISH-L
Dan, to steal a question from Major Garret, what took you so long?
Nial Liszt
Just an updated version of this use of available media.
Dunwich
I'm not buying it. Especially the comparison to Bush. "W" had been on record as being an optimist on all matters economic, a few weeks before the banking collapse. Of course he took a powder in the aftermath. Whatever the condition, the response to Obama will be the same. Too visable -complaints, not verbal enough on Iran-complaints.
lkcape
His public over-exposure is also showing him as being thin-skinned and defensive as well as over-coached.Overexposed? You bet!Whose fault do you thing that is?But what would you expect of him when his is in love with his own rhetoric and his staff is pulling the strings?He's finding out that reality doesn't respect the perpetual campaign. The mainstream media is finally beginning to look behind the curtain.They are not liking what they see (SURPRISE ! !)His problem. Unfortunately, it is ours, too.Can't blame this on GWB.
mike_b1
Clearly, the handful of lunatics left on the right are grasping at straws. Even FoxNews has been effectively neutered. I suspect the last three conservatives in the country are armed to the teeth and praying to their nonexistent god that Obama comes through their town someday.Before he won, it was clear Obama is smarter than the rest of us. Now, we are learning he just how much smarter he is. The shame is that we can't just name him king right now.
lkcape
I'm afraid that it was not clear that Obama was smarter than the rest of us. Only packaged in a slicker slicker.And that is what President Obama's major problem is: He is mostly package…and the MSM bought the charade.
mike_b1
Hmmm…Columbia undergrad…top of his class at Harvard Law…professor at University of Chicago…nope, he's smarter.We mock what we don't understand.
Nial Liszt
**top of his class at Harvard Law**Cite, please.**professor at University of Chicago**Cite, please.
O-FISH-L
Don't forget the Occidental College years under the name Barry Soetero.
meamoeba
o-fish, you do realize that story was an april fool's day hoax, right? is the aluminum hat not receiving properly?
Peter Porcupine
DK – Drudge has started an 'ALERT' tally of the number of occasions that (gasp!) Obama(s) are on the cover of Time Magazine.Since the creation of his 'Office of the President Elect' seal, Obama has tried to assume this Great Communicatior persona, with the help of his telepromter and its blog. But too much speeh becomes noise and dissonance, and the public tunes out, as the ratings on his recent White House infomercial show.And the Boy Who Press Released 'Wolf!' may find it hard to garner atention when it's actually needed, and not another Grand Opening (of a letter…).
Aaron Read
Nial, he graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law, and was the first black man elected president of the Harvard Law Review…a position of significant prominence.See: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/may/09/barackobama.uselections20081 if you're too in denial to accept my statements at face value."Professor" at University of Chicago is, technically, a more slippery concept. In layman's terms, anyone who teaches at a college or university is usually referred to as a "professor", although as our esteemed blog host knows…on the inside it's more complicated. Technically, according to FactCheck.org, Obama was a Lecturer from 1992 to 1996, and Senior Lecturer from 1996 to 2004. A lecturer certainly has a lot less power and/or academic freedom than a full, tenured professor. But in terms of Joe Public, he was a regular teacher of classes on Constitutional Law at the University of Chicago…that's typified as being called a "professor". Certainly that's what his students called him when in his class.Oh, and just because I imagine someone will demand the citation about that boneheaded Occidential/Soetero hoax, here's Factcheck.org's page on the issue.Getting back to the original point, though. I'm not sure Obama is "overexposed" to a younger generation. And I mean that literally…I'm 33 so I'm getting close to being outside of that demographic, so I'm honestly not sure if the twentysomethings out there think Obama is just fine where he is.What I think is more troubling is that a handy by-product of Obama being so firmly in the limelight is that it crowds out growing concerns that Obama…despite his explicit pledges of transparency on the campaign trail…is doing a fine job carrying on many of the more reprehensible traditions of secrecy from Dubya's administration. I'm not sure that's an INTENTIONAL by-product, but I'm cynical enough to suspect that it is.
O-FISH-L
meamoeba, Obama's Occidental years are a joke on us all, since his records (including his name used while there) are closely guarded secrets.As for Columbia and Harvard Law, affirmative action is a wonderful thing. For some.
Peter Porcupine
Fish – knock it off. The man is smart. Wrong, often deluded, never shrewd (but he hired that…), but he is academically smart.The practical value of the academic chops have yet to be demonstrated, but the 'affirmative action' b*lls&(t must end.
Bill Baar
Professors may be smart but only within their disipline, and they're usually smart enough not to get outside that.Obama's no Professor though, and the absense of any writing on anything save himself proof of that.He's smart like a Chicago Pol though, and likes power. He may outsmart himself though and when reality crashes in, and the image worn thin, it's going to be rough. He's got an awfully thin skin.
mike_b1
Thin skin? Please provide proof.
meamoeba
o-fish, i assume your college transcripts are "closely guarded secrets" as well, since privacy laws prohibit their distribution. but oc has said time and again, he was registered as barack obama. everything else is a right-wing conspiracy fantasy with no legs. if there was video of his birth in hawaii, neocons would still not accept his birth certificate. but he has and hawaii has released his birth certificate. you loons just won't accept it. he has more legitimacy of us citizenship and therefore presidential qualifications (at least on that mark) than john mccain, who was born in panama. get over it.
lkcape
Underlying this discussion is the implied equation:Sterling academic credentials = smart = effective leader.This can easily be disputed by two recent local examples:Our Esteemed Governor who seems to be able to snatch defeat from victory at any given moment; andLawrence Summers during his tenure as the President of Harvard.One's ability to deal with the real world means a lot more when coming to define "smart".
mike_b1
Right….. Being dumb is an excellent credential. Just look at every Republican president since Lincoln.
lkcape
Being dumb is not party specific.That is demonstrated daily.Academically credentialed individuals are not by definition excluded from the characterization.
mike_b1
Nope, it's pretty much a Republican thing.
lkcape
Q.E.D.
mike_b1
Yes, I think a few Republicans have managed their GEDs. They probably cheated, but that's just what they do best.