President Obama has stirred up another heated debate once again. The debate this time has to do with whether or not he has too much media exposure which could potentially reduce the effectiveness of his messages.
In fact, during his first eight months in office, Obama has already sat down for an astonishing three times as many television interviews as his two most recent predecessors combined.
The debate was sparked over Sunday’s media blitz in which Obama appeared on ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, and Univision for interviews in an attempt to curtail skepticism and bolster support for his health care plan.
There are many people who argue that this exposure is excessive and detrimental to his efforts. Ken Spain, communications director for the National Republican Congressional Committee, declared in an interview last Wednesday, “people are beginning to tune the president out.” A former White House speechwriter, Matt Latimer also warned, “He’s turning the presidency into an infomercial.”
However, White House aides continue to maintain that the President is the best advocate for his message. Aides also said that by Obama completing five interviews in such a short amount of time, such a feat would draw even more attention to the message because it is an unprecedented act. “Doing five becomes a story in itself, “ one aide said.
Unfortunately for the White House, critics aren’t focused entirely on the amount of interviews done, but on the sense of redundancy present in all of them. Obama is focusing on issues where he is losing in the sphere of public debate and is trying to rejuvenate support for his ideas, specifically about health care. And even more disheartening for the Obama administration are the dropping poll numbers which sit now at 43% who approve versus 55% who do not approve of the proposed health care plan.
The more he is talking the worse it gets for him. Critics are more than happy to let him continue talking, doubting Obama’s ability to convert health care skeptics and seeing how counterproductive this extra media coverage is for pushing his agenda. Former Bush White House official, Karl Rove wrote in his Wall Street Journal column last Thursday, “Mr. Obama will appear on five news shows on Sunday, his time might be better spent praying for more public support.”
President Obama is succeeding in getting his face everywhere, but in reality, he is getting nowhere in the health care debate. What’s even better is that the White House is blindly ignoring the fact that he is only catalyzing his defeat over the health care bill by overexposing and therefore cheapening his message.
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October 4th, 2009 at 1:38 am
Ken Spain is an individual who has established a pathological pattern of unstable behavior. Quote him at your own risk.
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