I Sense A Turning Tide

The LA Times is having fun now, at Barack's expense:

Obama White House bars press from press award ceremony

They are not making it up.  They also flag the President's "Special Olympics" effort on Leno, unlike the Times.

Over at The Politico we get this:

Obama struggles as communicator

Of all the pitfalls Barack Obama might face in the presidency, here is one not many people predicted: He is struggling as a public communicator.

The sluggish and unsteady response to the uproar over AIG bonuses highlights a larger problem of his White House: Obama’s surprisingly uneven campaign to educate people about the economic crisis and convince Washington and the broader public that he is in command of circumstances.

Well, yes - he has been on every side of the AIG flap.

This wouldn't be happening if the teleprompter were in charge.

BUT SERIOUSLY:  I have the strange yet unsupportable sensation that the White House decision to target Rush was a turning point.  Right wing noisemakers (like me!), including Rush, who may have been content to belabor Pelosi, Ried, Dodd, or whomever have shifted their focus to the Not So Great Communicator, and how is that working out?

Comments

[Ranger]

Here's another data point:

http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenote/2009/03/the-note-320200.html>The Note, 3/20/2009: So Special -- Obama loses a week, as a great communicator doesn’t communicate

Outrage, real or manufactured, has real consequences.

Jokes about the Special Olympics, funny or not, aren’t funny.

The blame game, no matter who’s really to blame, leaves no one blameless.

A White House vegetable garden wouldn’t be complete without arugula. (Really.)

Being the man who met the moment does not guarantee that he’ll meet every moment.

Sounds like ABC is getting a little payback for the carp the Obamabots and JournoList flung at them over asking Obama real questions in one debate.

[steve sturm]

unfortunately for your theory, the MSM doesn't take its cues from right wing noisemakers... except to paint them as dangerous, wrong, corrupt, buffoonish, drug addicted, anti-patriotic, biased fools who should be blamed for most, if not all, of our problems. Do you really think reporters at the LAT and elsewhere thought to themselves "Hey, maybe this Rush guy (whoever he is) is on to something, perhaps I ought to follow up."?

I'd put my money on a variation of 'hey, we got him elected, he was supposed to make everything better... and RIGHT NOW!... so WTF is going on?' There's nothing worse than jilting a lover, especially one who was so in the tank for you and who buys ink and bits by the barrel.

[ben]

"Obama’s surprisingly uneven campaign to educate people about the economic crisis and convince Washington and the broader public that he is in command of circumstances."

But he doesn't want to be "in command of circumstances".... He wants to be caretaker of the mess without actually touching it lest it contaminate him. He wants to blame Bush until the day the mess is resolved and then he will take command of the recovery.

[PeterUK]

For America,Obama is the dog you picked up at a party. You broke up with a long time partner,things had been rocky,and you went on the piss to forget.Today is the following day,when disheveled and hungover,you view the object of the previous nights desire disappearing out of the door with your money and your car keys having crapped in the shower.

[hit and run]

Obama White House bars press from press award ceremony

Oh, great...another http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2009/02/12/ST2009021203554.html>Dana Milbank in sandwich board protest video is no doubt on its way.

I can hardly wait.

[clarice]

Yikes,PUK..Your life must have been way more dissolute than even mine!!

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Even left-handed sharks can smell blood in the water.

[clarice]

Listen, if they had any professional pride the press would have refused to participate in WH pressers in which he pre-selected his questioners. They didn't.
If the press had any professional pride it would have made an issue of the toss from the plane of those who questioned The Won during the campaign. Thet didn't.

From time to time the gaffes are so public it is hard to hide them and they will kind of report them. But not in detail and not often.
They are like the cheerleaders in thrall to Ferris' charms.

[Cecil Turner]

unfortunately for your theory, the MSM doesn't take its cues from right wing noisemakers...

Yes, but in this case the caviler-in-chief made it the cornerstone of his outreach program. That set the tone for much of what followed.

But I think the real turning point was the utter stupidity on AIG bonuses. After making posturing for months on CEO compensation and announcing a brave new program to limit it to $500,000, the White House minions alternately complained that the Dodd restrictions were either too restrictive, not restrictive enough or (more plausibly) upstaged the Administration's own program. Regardless, the bill was passed exactly as they requested, with the predictable result, and then the President found his outrage. It's past incoherent into ridiculous, and the media types are faced with a real easy punching bag, or a convoluted pretzel twist to defend the indefensible. Easy call.

[DebinNC]

Political cartoonists ought to be ecstatic with the goldmine BO offers them each day, but other than a very few brave souls like Michael Ramirez, there's an Obama lampoon blackout. That's shameful. Even educative cartoons like this are rare. Who or what is muzzling the lampoonists? I think it's genuine fear for their lives or livelihoods at the hands of Obama zealots as happened to the Danish "Mohammed depicting" cartoonist.

[MayBee]

But he doesn't want to be "in command of circumstances".... He wants to be caretaker of the mess without actually touching it lest it contaminate him. He wants to blame Bush until the day the mess is resolved and then he will take command of the recovery.

Bingo.
He wants to give the message- in many cases, different messages for the same situation. Then he wants Congress to take care of the details, and he'll either take credit or criticize "Washington" if it doesn't work.

[Appalled]

The president does not seem focused on the problem he ought to be focused on. Instead, he is on Leno, committing a bush league pc gaffe, and loading up on the sort of government debt he decried during the campaign.

I don't know we have a turning point yet -- if the economy recovers, all really will be forgiven. But I have not seen a honeymoon -- which everyone really wanted to give this President -- so effectively and completely blown. Congress won't be listenng to this president, because the people who matter (if not the public -- who takes more time) have begun to disrespect him.

[hit and run]

PUK:
For America,Obama is the dog you picked up at a party

Heh, I said http://justoneminute.typepad.com/main/2008/02/root-causes.html?cid=99616864#comment-99616864>something similiar...roughly ~400 days ago.

I ended one of my bits:

And in a few weeks, the itching will begin.

I shoulda included burning.

[daveinboca]

Cecil---wish I'd said that! Good summary of the general buffoonery and why isn't the ink-stained-wretch crowd making more of three failed attempts at a number-two at Treasury? Does anyone want the job now that Turbo-Timmy is doing a hog-on-ice?

DebinNC---Libby read a couple of murderous threats to the AIG bonus recipients that should have made serial criminal Barney Frank think twice about releasing their names in public---something about piano wire for them and their kids, real charming agitprop stuff. Think the doobies in the MSM would pick up on that? Naaah!

[clarice]

hit, how in the world are you able to re-locate posts from so long ago? I cannot even find sruff at JOM from yesterday.

[Jim Ryan]

Those of us who didn't vote for the charlatan witnessed our spouse bring home the dog, endured the sounds of their screwing right next to us as we tried to sleep, and stepped in the crap in the shower.

[Jim Ryan]

Clarice, google, advanced search, type in the site URL and a snippet of what you think you said.

[hit and run]

And in any case, I'm no Elliott. Not even close. But yes, what Jim said is exactly what I do (in this case, "itching" got me close enough to find it)

[Ignatz Ratzkywatzky]

Libby read a couple of murderous threats to the AIG bonus recipients that should have made serial criminal Barney Frank think twice about releasing their names in public---

If Liddy had brass ones he would have asked if Frank wanted him to "name names" followed up quickly be "at long last sir, have you no sense of decency?"
And of course we all know the answer to that one.

[Mustang0302]

I Sense A Turning Tide

IOW, "BHO's Circling the Bowl"

[clarice]

Thanks, Jim and Hit.

[Barack Obama]

I, um, ah, would like to clarify my uh, remarks last night on, uh, the Leno show. Uh, what I meant to say, mmm, was that bowling is special, like the uh Olympics...yeah, that's it.....

[Stephanie]

Obama is the dog you picked up at a party

Coyote Ugly Teleprompter Of The United States....

Too bad you can't find a bag or ten...

And he put a muzzle over your mouth so you can't chew off your arm to get away...

CUTOTUS is an anagram of "cut outs" make of that what you will.

[Ignatz Ratzkywatzky]

I Sense A Turning Tide

I sense too many damned threads.

[daveinboca]

hit, is analogical political hermaphrodite as in "analogy" or the nether-region alternative?

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Tide or worm?

[jimmyk]

Obama’s surprisingly uneven campaign to educate people about the economic crisis

It's surprising that a complete ignoramus can't educate people about the economic crisis? That a slick orator who says little of substance during an entire presidential isn't up to the job? Obama's notion of education is probably more akin to what the Soviets used to call "reeducation." That he's not able to get away with it gives me some hope.

[Mike Huggins]

But wait just a minute, Jennifer Donahue "Political Director, New Hampshire Institute Of Politics" (calling Mark Steyn!) says that Obama is really THE "best communicator in the history of the American Presidency" EVAH!: ("Obama on Leno: THIS is Why This President Got Elected.")

See, This is why the Huffington Post is so important to the media. Now, the Jlisters can get their message straight.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Listen, if they had any professional pride the press would have refused to participate in WH pressers in which he pre-selected his questioners. They didn't.

QED.

[PeterUK]

H&R,
It's an old saw.Though I wasn't Obamaish enough to assign gender,equal opportunities dissolution.Though Obama would have mentioned she had a squint and a limp.

[Jane]

There's nothing worse than jilting a lover, especially one who was so in the tank for you and who buys ink and bits by the barrel.

Steve,

I bet you are right - so how does this play out for the left?

[hit and run]

PUK:
It's an old saw.

Yes, and as it passes from person to person it becomes ...drum roll please... a chain saw.

[matt]

little commentary on how he has demeaned the office of the President. Amazing. Dissing allies, his absolutely knuckleheaded outreach to our enemies, his teleprompter gaffes, the regular parties while the rest of us are cutting back or suffering....it's all adding up into a tinnitis and malapropism and incompetence that makes even GWB and Gerald Ford look like master orators and the pinnacles of statesmanship.....the clock is just ticking away on this train wreck.

[kim]

It may well get so bad, particularly with all the ugly surprises stuck into bills, and the continuing slide into disarray and disgust, that the idea of evaporating his whole presidency will be more bearable than continuing to soldier on. Then you will see the press get interested in his birth certificate.

Remember the folk song about the squad leader marching his troops into the Mississippi?
============================================

[kim]

Those Old Men, Climate, Capital, and China, they keep on rollin'.
=============================================

[DebinNC]

Good news for cap and trade foes

[steve sturm]

so how does this play out for the left?

Maybe as bad as for the right when they decided to go nuclear because they weren't getting everything they wanted with Bush and GOP control of Congress. The hard left, as well as the hard right, can't stand compromise (especially with 'them'.. or should I say 'us'?), they hate having to wait (they want it all and they want it now). And when they don't get everything they want, they act like jerks, making a fuss, undercutting support for their political leaders, encouraging fringe candidates to mount a challenge to the impure, threatening to sit out the next election and withhold contributions and ratcheting up the bile directed at the other side.

And then when the opposition and the public senses that Obama has lost some of his base support, the opposition becomes even more aggressive and hostile to negotiation and compromise (why save someone who is sinking), all resulting in paralysis (not necessarily a bad thing), increased hyperbole and a public who, notwithstanding the MSM attempts to prevent this from happening, flips back to the GOP (which, despite not having their act together, will still benefit merely by not having been in charge).

[clarice]

This paralysis is a good thing except when we discuss real emergencies and national security, I think.

[William Teach]

Well, it is no wonder Obambi didn't want the regular press involved. Per Little Green Footballs

The National Newspaper Association, despite its innocuous name, is actually an association of far-left publications that includes “Final Call” — the paper published by Louis Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam: NNPA - Article - member papers.

[twigster]

All I can say is, after 8 years of "short bus" jokes, it's about time someone called the elite left's bluff about how 'committed' they are to being 'sensitive' towards those with special needs. And if anyone cares to look, they will see that the Civil Rights Act, the Dems pride and joy, had a higher percentage in each house of Reps voting for it than Dems; otherwide it goes down in flames. The left is quick to call 'liar', but frequently rely on the fascist ploy of telling the "BIG Lie", and letting their minions do the rest.

[sbw]

National Newspaper Association, despite its innocuous name, is actually an association of far-left publications

Please! I'm a member of the National Newspaper Association (NNA). Hell, I was on their board of directors for a ton of years. Leftitude has nothing to do with it.