At the risk of questioning Obama's infallibility, his PR crisis management has always sucked

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

For whatever reason, Barack Obama is awful at managing PR flaps, and always has been.

His default attitude is, "I'll try saying nothing and let my likability carry the day... maybe it will just go away."

Then he stair-steps distancing/denial/explanation day by day which just drags things out. This was persistent throughout the primaries and campaign. Jeremiah Wright, NAFTA Canada, etc.. 1) anonymous campaign statement, 2) on the record campaign surrogate, 3) Obama himself says something vague, 4) Obama comes back the next day and says something a little less vague, and so on.

It's like he wants to calibrate the smallest possible response and edges up to it over days. He seems to think he and the press are in negotiations about the least possible response they'll accept. The problem is that when they are frustrated the national presses' demands escalate every hour. What would have satisfied them Wednesday is considered stonewalling by Friday.

At some point he (or those around him) will learn that on the top national level things do not blow over of their own accord. You can stonewall or you can shake the bag early. But the pulling a band-aid in slow motion approach isn't optimal.

Everyone in the world knows that Obama's people were involved peripherally in the senate replacement selection process and had an interest in who got picked. It would be crazy if they weren't. There's nothing shady about it.

By failing to volunteer the obvious on the first day he has created the perception of a story where none exists.

[BlooInBloo]

1. Shush. We're busy worshippping the messiah known as Obambi.

You fail.


EDIT: Oh, and we're censoring nazis too.

[tabatha]

2. So, why did he win?

[firedupdem]

3. During the primaries whenever some perceived crisis came

up I was always thinking he should handle it in a "stronger" way...if that makes any sense. But at the end of the day he always came out okay and the media and the people trying to make something out of nothing looked guilty. So, while not one person on earth is infallible...his way of handling things seem to work out fine.

[WeDidIt]

4. Obama always takes his time to insure his facts are right

When he has all his ducks in a row, he releases the info all at once.

Best get used to it, this is how he operates.

IIRC, his opponents and the press would always go off half cocked while he was getting his information together, then they looked like fools whenever he released the full story.

Same shit now, different shitstorm.

[cali]

5. lol. he handled one pr problem after another during the primary and general

he's at the very top national level because he's so good at it. Amusing that all the armchair pundits don't grasp something so simple.

[BeFree]

6. Yer a rookie?

You say:
"At some point he (or those around him) will learn that on the top national level things do not blow over of their own accord. "

Well, for the last 8 years things at the national level have blown over on their own accord. Where have you been?

Obama always said that he didn't let others take him off course. He still doesn't.

[mkultra]

7. looks like the right choice to me

most of the reporters that bitch about the fact the he "didn't come out with a strong denial" are really just trying to bait him into the pig pen. If a story is bullshit, then treat it like bullshit and ignore it.


He hasn't talked about the court cases challenging his citizenship. To do so would to give the story greater reach.

Fact is there are two schools on this. You either must address every attack with a nasty counter attack, otherwise known as "fighting" or you must stay on message and ignore attacks UNTIL they actually get some legs.

Tying Obama to blag has yet to really take off. volunteering the "obvious" on the first day would actually make people question it.

[eleny]

8. I'm not so fast to agree with your assessment of his "default attitude"

Seems to me like he doesn't rush to the demands of others but deals with issues on his own time clock where possible. This Blago stuff isn't exactly a nation shattering development. Remember how fast he came out t deal with the economic crisis? Yeah, it was immediate.

So if he's waiting to gather details before coming out with one statement, it doesn't bother me in the least. Volunteering information if the information you have on the first day isn't complete is never smart. And Obama is smart. Smarter than you, imo.

I'm just not on the right wing calliope with this one. Life is so much better since Obama won the election that I've decided to defer hand wringing. I'm still basking in the afterglow of his Steve Chu nomination.

[Pirate Smile]

9. The people he was running against were worried about winning the daily news cycle and PR spin.

He wasn't and he won because of it.

He looks longer term and more strategically.

He doesn't go by the media frenzy's timetable - and they know it (CNN's Jessica Yellin mentioned this the other day - the Obama camp works on their own timetable and don't respond when or how the media is used to - the press is just going to have to get used to it - it reflects Obama's calm, thorough and thoughtful approach).

The public seems to accept and deal just fine with Obama's way (obviously).

The press still thinks every newscycle is critical. It isn't.

[nsd]

10. "... on the top national level things do not blow over ..."

Well, the easy answer is: Obama is the president-elect of the United States. He won. So he can't be that bad at performing on the "top national level."

All these mistakes you perceive didn't really cost him. And, in retrospect, I'd say his handling of Jeremiah Wright was excellent -- the race speech was a singular event.

This Blago thing is a big nothing, but the media were going to be all over it no matter what. Staying cool -- which is Obama's forte -- is the right strategy.

Bill Clinton, with his War Room, was famous for responding to everything immediately. But it really got him nowhere. Whitewater, Travelgate, FBI Filegate, Paula Jones, Vince Foster, Chinese fundraising, Lincoln Bedroom, Monica, and probably other stuff I can't remember now. What was so great about his rapid response? We still got mired in all of this shit.

Obama handling of stuff like this -- treat them like no big deal, be transparent, check you've got the facts straight before opening your mouth -- seems much better to me.

[mwei924]

11. No one seems to care except you. His numbers have actually gone up.

[Cha]

12. Your bitterness is noted and

your premise has failed.

[ellacott]

13. Obama has always been criticized for not responding fast enough

*copied from another post I made*

And in most of those situations it has proven to be the right move. People criticized him for not hitting back hard enough during the primary and general election. He won both campaigns. The Repubs criticized him for not going to Iraq and Afghanistan soon enough. When he went over there it was very positive. They tried to criticize him for not responding soon enough during the Georgia conflict. It has been proven that Georgia instigated that conflict. He was criticized for not responding fast enough when the financial crisis blew up. It was shown that Obama's considered and measured approach gave people confidence in him. McCain was seen as being all over the place. After he won the election people criticized him for not being more involved in the financial crisis. When he introduced his financial team and had news conferences for three days the stock market went up each of those days.

Obama seems to work on his own timetable and the results seem to work out for him. I trust his judgment in how and when he chooses to respond to this current situation.

[FrenchieCat]

14. It is possible that he is better at being honest than at PR spin......?

F*ck the "frustrated national press" up their ass! It's not like they have ever done anything for anyone that was worth anything.....other than giving us George Bush, his wars, and an economic disaster.

Obama's approval rating appears steady, most likely because the majority of Americans remember this part of the Fitzgerald news conference....."Motherf*cker...F*ck him, F*ck him.....I've got this thing, and it's f*ckin' golden, and uh, uh, and I'm not going to give it up for f*ckin' nothing.....they are "not willing to give me anything except appreciation. F*ck them."

Like the vulture media, if you don't recall that Obama was the "Motherf*cker-in-chief" that the Governor kept referring to, than I don't know what to say about you....other than you are a weenie for allowing the press' contrived reaction to control what you think the President Elect ought to do.

Obama approval ratings per Gallup: http://www.gallup.com/poll/112006/Gallup-Daily-Confidence-Obama.aspx (there is a 1 point weekend drop....as he was at 69% yesterday....while his 68% actually shows a net increase since the Blago scandal started from last week)

Oh...and this post is what fails...miserably.

[Lord Helmet]

15. your bitterness is showing

[happychatter]

16. He is in a position to restore freedom of the press in America and I call that "S-U-C-C-E-S-S" n/t

[ShortnFiery]

17. Gee, more concern? No, I think Obama, albeit fallible, has "an excellent team."

But your concern is noted.

[Jennicut]

18. Yes, quickly responding to a story without the facts is always the right thing to do....NOT!

Obama is a methodical pragmatic person. Every criticism of him never seems to hold true. Maybe he is the teflon politician like Reagan but with more morals. He never gets rattled and falls over himself trying to explain things. I like this about him. He takes his time, gets his response right and then goes about his business. I see nothing wrong with that. The MSM is just going to have to deal with it.

[CitizenPatriot]

23. what you said....nt.

I mean, I second what you said:-) Well done!

[Starry Messenger]

19. LOL. Nice satire.

I think you have created the perception of a problem where none exists.

[Life Long Dem]

20. Your starting trouble.

Your taking Obama's lack of attacks with knocking down an attack, because you seemed to miss the whole primary with the whole kitchen thrown at Obama and the whole GE where Obama struck down any attack coming at him.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

28. "You're"

wasting time with this OP. "They're" still stuck in the primaries.

"We're" not helping by kicking this thread.

[Thrill]

21. Hmmmmmm If this was true why do Repukes and talking heads all agree

he had the best run campaign ever?

You ever think that the reason none of the attacks stick is because of the way he handles them?

[karynnj]

22. I wish he would have been more up front - because there was no wrong

This is what made little problems big for Clinton and Nixon.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

24. Without your advice and input...

It's no WONDER he didn't win the election...

To be blunt, I think Obama is smarter than you.

[AspenRose]

25. "At the risk of questioning Obama's infallibility...."

Those seven words tell me all I need to know about this OP.

[NYC Liberal]

27. Agreed. nt

[treestar]

26. He never claimed to be infallble

And he won the election, so that concept that his PR team "sucks" is rather silly.