Media’s in the news this a.m., starting with AOL’s acquisition of Huffington Post, solidifying Arianna Huffington as the Oprah of the web.
That story fits with the O’Reilly interview and what’s currently going on with Pres. Obama’s renewed reach out to the traditional and new media press, the one relationship that has always been the most helpful to Pres. Obama. Sarah Palin still hasn’t learned what Hillary Clinton learned when she decided to ran for Senate, which is you simply won’t win by picking fights with people who have unlimited space on which to eviscerate you. Old laws, really, but they apply doubly in the era of Huffington Post global.
POLITICO mines what has been Barack Obama’s ace in the hole since he became a candidate. How Pres. Obama plays the media like a fiddle. It’s one reason why his move to do an interview with Bill O’Reilly was bound to be a win for him.
In early November, Barack Obama was one sad sack of a president—his agenda repudiated by midterm voters, his political judgment scorned by commentators, his future darkened by a growing belief he might be a one-time president.
In early February, Obama is master of the moment—his polls on the upswing, his political dexterity applauded by pundits, his status as Washington’s dominant figure unchallenged even by Republicans.
There isn’t a Republican right now that has the media status of Obama. It’s a huge challenge for the Right.
But the hilarious thing about Obama’s story with the media is how he plays them. Patrick Gavin mentioned it on “Morning Joe” as sort of a courting ritual with D.C. insiders. That’s part of it, no doubt, but it’s also about placing your adversaries at the margins while you sit in the center playing the one who allegedly knows.
This is a preview of how easy it could be for Obama to appear like a centrist for the remainder of the next two years. With the Bachmann crowd on one side and angry liberals eager to raise money, membership and their own profile on the other, Obama can plop in between.
Every gesture, however empty, toward the center will draw a frothing attack from different sets of liberal outlets. The most visible might be the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, which has built a robust email list and fundraising model by pressuring Obama from the left.
The media love stories about the internal wars in both parties. Obama, in his new determination to hold the center, now loves them, too.
Ah yes, you have to watch out for those “frothing attack(s)” from PCCC, which would also include movement progressives like Texan4Hillary, as well as a whole host of people who comment and email me daily. Activists who are concerned that Obama’s middle of the road conservatism will overtake their priorities. Once again the notion of the wise and crafty middle of the road politician combating the extremes of both parties is the traditional and new media insider narrative that is being nurtured through Bill Daley’s orchestration.
Obama’s right to set the stage this way if for no other reason than insider outlets like POLITICO love to write about it. With Huffington Post now acquired by AOL there’s going to be a lot more of it around. That’s good news for Pres. Obama.
What it means for movement progressives is something else entirely.
That all this came as Keith Olbermann was also ushered out, the least of it Larry King calling it quits, seems to make what’s now developing part of a foundational shift in American media, which isn’t yet at an end.
Michael Scherer in TIME magazine puts Pres. Obama’s middle of the road as realism versus idealism on Egypt. Obama comes out a realist. I, for one, am not shocked, but I bet his fan base is.
Obama comes off personable and reasonable with O’Reilly and Palin continues to marginalize herself with her constant stream of snark not even smart snark but small mean snark.
As the world rages around him, Pres. Obama, at least for now, is in the zone. Letting his foundational conservatism rise after the midterms agrees with him, but also the DC insider press who loves the notion of bipartisanship and comity.
Perhaps it’s Bill Daley’s Clintonian hand, because no one knew more about beefs with the press than Clinton, but what Palin is doing is just absurd. Even if by some stretch she would run for president and actually win the nomination it will never make her successful country wide.
I agree with you on both counts. Obama is much more comfortable in his conservative skin and Dems would be smart to go on Fox. It is much harder to hate someone you feel like you know a little.
Conservative stategists have understood this for quite awhile. Appearing frequently on MSNBC. A couple of them are quite likable and they don’t seem to give up any conservative credibility like the liberals who develop stockholm syndrome when they appear on Fox regulary.
Obama engaging and flirting with the press even more, while distancing himself from the Rahm Emanuel – Robert Gibbs pettiness, is also marginalizing his right-wing critics, making them seem completely untrustworthy & unhinged.
yeah, Gibbs has not been good for Obama as Press Secretary,he has been petty and snide. That said I have always thought of him as Obama’s alter ego and thought we were getting an idea of what Obama really thought about things.I would imagine that with the new guy Obama will be better served but the average observer will have less insight.
It is simply amazing to have lived through this indiscribable transformation of the Dems into an emasculated fluffer for the extreme wingnuts of the repugnantklan/teabaggers, the absolute WORST elements of our national pshyci.
amazing!
taylor the media(inc.) speaks from the same script. it’s nauseating. little wonder why viewers decline and a big reason i tune-in here for some critical thought.
ps i voted + contributed to obama/won’t happen again
With you, Taylor, I’m not shocked. But I am wondering more and more how far “right” things have to go before enough (whatever that ends up meaning) push-back occurs that the professional left, and most of the msm, have to listen.
When all the self-important bloggers and the news media start to make the story about themselves, you can bet your bottom dollar that EVERYONE in America starts to tune out.
Los Angeles Democrat, I totally concur with you.
So Obama’s goal is winning the Village Idiot AKA Mainstream Media instead of his base. And he is considered intelligent and a Constitutional Law Scholar?
What is good for Obama is NOT good for America. He is a lying *sshole and that’s never changed from Day ONE.
The Republicans should vote for him in 2012, he is, after all, one of them! Their vote and all these corporatist Democrats who have co-opted the DNC and its platform, should bring Obama a landslide victory *gagging*