Obama, A Burden or an Asset?

Obama campaigned with such vagueness that most people didn't know how he was going to lead. Once elected he began to lecture the country on what he considered important issues; these specifics opened the gate to criticism. His vagueness was his strong point now it's no longer there to protect him.

Obama didn't have many question and answer sessions with the media for the entire first year of his presidency. I think he might have learned his lesson this year.

Jan. 14, 2010

President Obama has not held a full news conference at the White House since July 22, the night he said that the Cambridge Police "acted stupidly" in the arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates.

Since then, the president has delivered dozens of speeches and taken a few questions from reporters while with world leaders on foreign trips. But, lately, it is rare for him to take questions from the media at events or meetings at the White House.

Obama had five news conferences at the White House last year, one more than President George W. Bush had in his first year in office.

Gibbs was referring to last year when the cable pundits were chattering about how everywhere you turned, there was Obama.

The White House spokesman said, no, the president was not avoiding reporters and reiterated the media's concern about overexposure.

The White House says the president is not hiding and, indeed, does regular interviews with a wide variety of media. But they're one-on-one interviews, not a large collective news conference.

Reuters' Bohan said she hopes the White House adjusts its thinking on the issue of access to the president.

"I think it's very important that they do make him more available for press conferences," she said. "I think that the unfortunate trend in presidencies is that each year access gets narrowed more and more and I think we're seeing that trend this year."

Now, because of Obama's inability to answer questions, or respond off-the-cuff, seguey Bill Clinton.

Former President Bill Clinton held a remarkable, spur-of-the-moment news conference at a White House podium on Friday to announce his backing for the tax compromise President Obama reached with Republicans this week.

“I have reviewed this agreement that the president reached with the Republican leaders,” Mr. Clinton told reporters who assembled quickly for the hastily called remarks. “The agreement taken as a whole is, I believe, the best bipartisan agreement we can reach to help the most Americans.”

The president stood by Mr. Clinton’s side for several minutes as Mr. Clinton held court in front of the White House logo that often hovered behind him a decade ago.

But after Mr. Clinton began taking questions, the current president excused himself, saying that his wife, Michelle, expected Mr. Obama’s presence at one of the many holiday parties that presidents host during the month of December.

“I’ve been keeping the first lady waiting,” Mr. Obama said, excusing himself.

“I don’t want to make her mad,” Mr. Clinton said. “Please go.”

And with that, Mr. Obama departed, leaving Mr. Clinton to continue his extended conversation with the media.

I'm not sure what Obama's staff was thinking when they let Clinton do the sitting president's work. Who really thought that this was going to go over well with anyone?

I love the way the media is portraying this too, saying things like, "Bill Clinton seems the perfect validator for Barack Obama -- which is why the president is utilizing the former president for selling his tax deal." - Robert Reich

Clinton is not Obama's validator. Clinton is being used because Obama lacks validity; otherwise why would Obama have someone else explain a deal that he supposedly brokered? Either Obama is incapable of explaining his own deal or people will not believe what Obama says when he says it. None of this makes any sense other than to say that Obama is becoming more of a burden than an asset.

What do you think?

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