Full Court Press
One of the most difficult transitions to make for an incoming president is changing his relationship with the press. Campaigning is about controlling the media and staying on message. In many ways success on the campaign trail has to do with when you don’t talk to reporters or when you don’t schedule press events. The White House is a different game. The most successful presidents have had a candid, almost friendly relationship with journalists (think FDR or Reagan as opposed to Nixon or GW Bush).
Obama seems to be sending some mixed signals. While he championed “Google for Government” as part of his more transparent government, he seems to be far more like the last administration in tone and action than most people may want to admit at this point. He has not sat down for the traditional NY Times Inaugural Interview (a time-honored tradition), and his staff has even prided itself on bucking “elite” media outlets. He has been fairly serious about message control, the continuation of “No Drama Obama.” Yesterday on NPR’s “Talk of the Nation,” Leonard Downie, Jr. (17 year Executive Editor of the Washington Post) suggested that the Obama transition team’s stance toward the media was eerily similar to that of the previous administration. Can Obama govern without campaign tactics?
As we have seen recently, the perpetual campaign model can lead to problems as Scott McClellan writes in his recent book, What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception. On the other hand, Obama has given more press conferences than any President-Elect in history, and he vows to use YouTube and other social media to speak directly to the people.
Obama could politically triangulate the press situation in a similar way as he did with campaign finance. Yes I didn’t take public financing like I promised, but my donors are small and numerous and a good sample of America, so the spirit of campaign finance law is upheld. He could similarly say, No, my administration is not completely open to the press, but I speak directly to the American people more than anyone ever. Never mind the moral problems that arise with both arguments. That’s damn good politicking. We’ll just have to wait and see.
