Posted on 01/25/2011 11:05:19 AM PST by presidio9
After President Obama delivers his State of the Union address Tuesday tonight, don't be surprised if he does some selective dialing back on his TV appearances.
That could be a smart move, even though no President since Ronald Reagan has loved television more than Obama - and TV has loved him right back.
Obama comes across on "Oprah" as articulate and relaxed.
You see him and you want to friend him on Facebook.
So once he got to the White House, he naturally wasn't going to get off the horse that helped bring him there.
In his first year as President, he did 90 television interviews.
He's done all the news shows, "60 Minutes," David Letterman and "Tonight." He's done Bill O'Reilly, and he'll do a new interview with him on Feb. 6, just before Fox's pregame coverage of the Super Bowl.
Obama's also done "The View," "The Daily Show," baseball and basketball telecasts.
In early 2011, however, fresh and chillier winds are swirling.
Obama has half a Republican Congress and a strong message from voters that they want things to be different.
Amid widespread speculation we will be seeing Obama 2.0 this year, then, one of the things that could change is his TV strategy.
It's not that he's about to ignore television, which remains the most popular and pervasive medium in the country. Gearing up for history's first billion-dollar re-election campaign, Obama isn't likely to forsake many chances to be seen in a place where he looks good.
What he may forsake, though, are some of the schmooze stops, like Letterman or "The View," simply because it may be time to be somebody else on television for a while.
Like the President.
As we will be reminded Tuesday night, there's real power to the formal trappings of an official presidential presentation, that single image in the middle of the TV screen.
That doesn't mean everyone will buy what Obama will be selling. It does put his words at the center of the conversation, giving them weight and importance that he will need in the year ahead.
Talking with Oprah, he's a likable guy. Delivering the State of the Union, he's a leader with leverage. He alone gets to put his vision forth while everyone else listens.
This truth was dramatically underscored two weeks ago with his address at the Tucson memorial.
He got rave notices both for what he said and for sounding presidential in saying it. He hit the right tone, it was widely agreed, because he came across on TV as someone who could provide comfort in a time of crisis.
Barack the Facebook friend isn't going to disappear. Come next year, he'll be everywhere. But at least for a while, we may be seeing more of his statesmanlike alter ego: President Obama.
dhinckley@nydailynews.com
Somebody has been coaching this idiot, BIG TIME! That, and he is taking a page out of Reagan’s playbook.
BS! He will be hitting the campaign trail soon ... there’s no way he’ll be able to stay off the talk show circuit. It’s his lifeline.
Not really. He’s getting rid of things that interfere with his vacations and parties.
More time for golf and B’ball
Is that the same as "clean and well-spoken?"
Excuse me, if he's trying to imply that Reagan "loved television more than Obama", he can try to sell that soap somewhere else. Obama has desecrated practically every sports championship, more than one talk show, and Mythbusters, to name just a few.
FUbo!
LLS
And we should believe him because he’s never lied to us before.
And he was born in Hawaii
What about BOR?
He has bending over lately specifically for the _resident.
...his train has run out of steam. His handlers need to change course because it’s just not working....and more and more people are recognizing he’s a snake oil guy with no more bottles of snake oil. His spending is gone and there’s still a lot of people with their hands out.
Street agitating don’t work when you have to produce....
and Issa’s got his 40 or so cases lined up. Watch for the mass Czar exodus. Tonight’s black and white ribbon show is the last of Cumbia Ya moments.
More vacations.
I’m completely worn out with BOR! Am I the only person who thinks Bill was pretty easy on Obama when he interviewed him back before the Election? BOR has consistently reminded us of how “rough” he was on Obama—was he serious? Finally I just stopped watching “The Factor” due to being so Fed up with ol’ Bill’s never-ending Praise for himself!
Where on earth was the barf alert?
What will Obama’s hair color be for the SOTU? Black, gray, white?
Purple?
Not "less," but "fewer." I guess the only thing they teach in journalism school is socialist indoctrination.
'You see him and you want to friend him on Facebook.'
No way.. I ain't gonna touch this one.
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