New president making his mark
WASHINGTON — Barack Obama is the everywhere president.
Turn around and there he is on TV.
In a motorcade headed to Capitol Hill, the State Department, the Pentagon, the Kennedy Center. Announcing new members of his administration. At a prime-time news conference. In Indiana and Florida, stumping for passage of his $787 billion economic stimulus package. In Denver, signing it. In Phoenix, announcing a home foreclosure rescue plan. In Canada, schmoozing on his first foreign trip as president. Giving his first address to Congress and an anxious nation at large.
That's just the first five weeks.
With that much exposure, Obama runs the risk of overexposing himself and turning off a public that had largely tuned out the president he replaced, George W. Bush, as Bush neared the end of his eight years in the White House.
But the current climate of crisis, anchored by a next-to-no-growth economy that seems to worsen by the day, almost requires the nation's leader to be out and about, visibly explaining to the public the steps he is taking to try to make things better.
"If this were a normal presidency he might be overexposing his persona, but it is not," said Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. "This is a moment of crisis and people need the reassurance of seeing a president frequently and in control."
Bush had been about as active as Obama in his first five weeks in office, in 2001, including a similar address to Congress, a foreign trip to Mexico, a five-state, campaign-style swing to sell his plan for $1.6 trillion in tax cuts, a news conference in the White House briefing room and trips to military installations.
He did it against a vastly different backdrop, however.
The country had just emerged from the Clinton years, during which the economy flourished and Uncle Sam's wallet was brimming with money. Bush had campaigned on a promise of more than $1 trillion in tax cuts and was able to deliver within months of taking office.
The country also was at peace. War followed months later, after terrorists attacked New York and Washington on Sept. 11, 2001. Bush first sent troops into Afghanistan, then led a coalition into Iraq. Both conflicts have cost billions of dollars.
And Bush didn't have to contend with simultaneous meltdowns in the financial, auto and housing industries.
Ari Fleischer, who was Bush's first press secretary, said Obama's level of visibility is appropriate for his time in office.
"I think with every new president the country wants to take a measure of who the new president is," he said. People get to know them as candidates but "then they take a different measure of them as president, so he needs to be out there showing people who he is."
"Over time, he will need to recalibrate, but not yet," Fleischer added.
Ronald Walters, director of the African American Leadership Center at the University of Maryland, said Obama is using his popularity and political capital to make progress quickly on solving these huge problems, even as he continues the process of building an administration.
Walters said people would want to know where the president was if he weren't out there being his own salesman.
"If he were not as active as he is, there would be a vacuum," he said. "We'd be talking about a vacuum of leadership in the midst of these huge crises."
David Gergen, who has advised both Republican and Democratic presidents, said Obama was "near the edge" of overexposure.
Both he and Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, agreed that Obama needs more people in his administration who are as capable of speaking to the public, and as credible, as he is.
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's rollout of a bank rescue plan lacked specificity and was not well-received by Wall Street.
"I think it's very important that an administration in the midst of an economic crisis have strong, authoritative spokesmen for the president on economic questions so he doesn't have to do all the heavy lifting himself," Gergen said. "I don't think he's overexposed. I think he's having to carry too much of the weight himself."
If the public was already tired of Obama, it would show in the polls — and the numbers aren't there yet.
An Associated Press-GfK poll last week found Obama's approval rating at 67 percent, down from 74 percent before he took office, and the latest Washington Post-ABC News survey found his approval at 68 percent. Though a Gallup survey released Tuesday put his approval rating at 59 percent, that was not far off the average one-month approval rating of 62 percent for the past six elected presidents.
Feb 28, 2009 at 12:08 a.m.
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Panama --- Bush was not declared by the conservatives as a conservative even when he ran for office the first time. Republicans, independents, and a few democrats elected him --- not just conservatives or all conservatives. I personally don’t fully defend the idea behind bailouts as a smart government move. To claim there are no restrictions in TARP funding without first reading the bill is dishonest.
Feb 27, 2009 at 2:42 p.m.
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Its very convenient to assert Bush was not a conservative when it was conservatives that nominated then voted him into office, RetiredAirForce. And wasn't it conservatives that had majority control in both the Senate and House for six years of his presidency? Trickle down economics does not work. The wealthy use their money to enrich themselves, not the masses. Putting money into the hands of the 95% of Americans that make less than a quarter of a million through tax breaks creates job and economic growth. Is it a coincidence that Reagan, Bush I and II have all left office after presiding over failed economies? Bush never presented an "honest" budget to Congress because it included AMT revenue that he knew would not be collected he failed to include spending on two wars. Great way to make the deficit look smaller. Then Bush throws over 700 billion of our money to banks and never considered to ask or verify how the money was to be spent. Bush and the Republicans never seemed to have an answer but only complained when Democrats tried to offer solutions. I can see why many Republicans consider Obama a "Messiah" after looking at what they have had to work with. Democrats just call him Mr. President.
Feb 26, 2009 at 7:58 p.m.
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"All Bush did was give our tax money away to the banks with no stipulations whatsoever."
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I guess you never read the TARP bill.
Feb 26, 2009 at 12:48 p.m.
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At least Obama is trying to do something good for the citizens of the US with healthcare reform, etc. All Bush did was give our tax money away to the banks with no stipulations whatsoever. And wasted on a war we should have not been involved in.
Feb 26, 2009 at 10:55 a.m.
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You seem to forget Bush just spent $750 billion last fall, and doubled the debt to $11.5 trillion. If Obama halves the deficit by 2012 he will have it back to Bush`s level, then he can try to lower that in the second term. If he can`t, there won`t be a second term.
Feb 26, 2009 at 10:12 a.m.
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"he gets the deficit halved by 2012, I would call it spending wisely."
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Math is wonderful thing. How does spending 800 billion now make up for saving less than that by 2012?
Feb 26, 2009 at 9:58 a.m.
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Spend wisely??? Obama just signed a so called "stimulus" package that is more that bush spent in 8 years!! and he did it in the first MONTH of his administration!! Now I do not agree with all the stuff bush did, but this new administration is on the verge of spending more in one term than all presidents!!! don't tell me that is wise spending.
Feb 26, 2009 at 8:48 a.m.
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If it gets the economy going, and he gets the deficit halved by 2012, I would call it spending wisely.
Feb 26, 2009 at 6:45 a.m.
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"while committing "generational theft!"
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And what would you call the stimulus bill?
Feb 26, 2009 at 6:43 a.m.
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"Spend wisely your butt! Bush drove the deficit up"
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I never said Bush didn't, I said the right meaning conservative---Bush is not a conservative.
Feb 26, 2009 at 6:15 a.m.
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Spend wisely your butt! Bush drove the deficit up, up, up, with his unwise spending, while committing "generational theft!" And he destroyed the reputation of the US at the same time!
Feb 26, 2009 at 12:38 a.m.
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"after all, it took Bush five years to get federal revenues back to where they were during the Clinton years."
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That is the main distinction between the left and the right. The left sees the job of the President to increase revenues to the federal government. The right sees the job of the President to make the government spend wisely what they have with out increasing (taking more from the taxpayers) having to increase receipts.
Feb 25, 2009 at 9:13 p.m.
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I would think that 36 days is not quite enough time to judge the job he is doing, after all, it took Bush five years to get federal revenues back to where they were during the Clinton years.
Feb 25, 2009 at 8:40 p.m.
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Maybe when obama no longer depends on the teleprompter I will start taking him seriously.
Feb 25, 2009 at 8:06 p.m.
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By the way, it recovered almost all the early losses by the end of the day, just like the two days before it.
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Yep, minus -1% today and minus 12% since inauguration day...he is doing a great job. Yep especially great job from the two days before it when the market was at it's lowest since 1997.
Feb 25, 2009 at 6:52 p.m.
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Bush spends billions on fighting a wasted, unnecessary war in Iraq, and the Republicans whine and cry when this President spends money to help Americans. After eight years of Bush and his crooked cohorts, one would think the Republicans would shut their yaps. And isn't it interesting that Cheney is staying over in Dubai counting the millions he made "rebuilding" Iraq. Another crook!
And when nemesis learns how to properly use capitalization we will start taking him seriously.
Feb 25, 2009 at 6 p.m.
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The market went down because a) details of the stress test were released, which made traders nervous of the banking sector, b) housing numbers were released, and were even weaker than anticipated, and c) European jitters about energy costs and economic instability in Eastern Europe. Not that investors have any obligation to pay attention to actual economic conditions, but you know, they do.
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By the way, it recovered almost all the early losses by the end of the day, just like the two days before it.
Feb 25, 2009 at 4:23 p.m.
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I love how the media/press are falling all over themselves to worship Obama. Their dribbling bias for america's first black president is sickening. Good thing Obama is a democrat. The press/media are so eager to have any democrat rather than a republican they are wanting and hoping all americans have the same short attention span. They're hoping no one looks too closely how all these stimulus plans will work. And if you do look too closely you are labeled a partisan or racist.
Feb 25, 2009 at 12:06 p.m.
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Somewhat less than a million...
Feb 25, 2009 at 11:16 a.m.
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He sure is making his mark...and the market has responded. Thanks a million.
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