Time for a Laugh: Read “Obama on Thin Ice”

After ridiculing DC schools for closing for “some ice,” President and Mrs. Obama coincidentally visit their daughter Sasha’s school the next day. Photo credits: AP.

Jeanne McManus who retired from the Washington Post in 2005 has had it with out-of-towners picking on Washington, D.C., including President Obama. In today’s guest column, McManus responds to Obama’s ridiculing the city for closing its schools the other day due to some ice.

McManus writes:

I was born and raised in Washington, and though I live in Bethesda now, I still don't take too kindly to people breezing in from out of town and telling us how to run our lives. Maybe it's because I was vote-deprived for so long. Got that? Maybe it's because I thought it grossly unjust that some Republican congressman like Virginia's Joel T. Broyhill was empowered to tell Washingtonians what our priorities should be, as he opposed home rule for the District. (As you can see, I don't forget. It's kept me in a defensive crouch for a few decades.)

On an even smaller and meaner note, I will confess that when I was deputy sports editor at The Post from 1991 to 1999, I took with glee the phone calls from aggrieved and transplanted New Yorkers complaining that we didn't provide enough coverage of the New York Knicks or Giants. My former boss, George Solomon, will be pained to learn that I would elbow aside other editors to handle such a call, just so that I, in my chirpiest voice, could give the troubled subscriber my solution: "You want more about the Giants? Move back to New York. Bye-bye!"

So many out-of-towners who get stationed, transferred or elected to serve here feel entitled to waltz in and take shots at the way we dress (we wear too much black; women wear sneakers with dress suits), the way we drive (too aggressively and erratically) and, most recently, the way we respond to snow (we like to shut things down).

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More About the Obama Administration’s Attempt to Bypass/Control the Media

The above photos were among those distributed in last week’s publicity release by the White House, which broke tradition by not allowing access to the media on Obama’s first day in office.

Today’s topic relates to my earlier post describing the new administration’s plans to use the Internet to bypass the media in mobilizing public support for President Obama’s programs.

The media, however, has ways of pushing back. A few days ago, the Associated Press, Reuters, and Agence-France-Presse refused to distribute White House provided photos of Obama’s first day in the Oval Office. The agencies were protesting the Administration’s break with long-time tradition in its refusal to allow news photographers access on that important occasion.

Those impressive photos of Obama’s first day in the Oval Office, prominently displayed by the Huffington Post, were actually “visual publicity releases.” (In today’s search I could find only the two shown above.)

Ari Melber picks up the story today in Obama, the Press and Us: Transparency is Not Enough:

It is great, of course, for the White House to release photos or documents or any other material. Obama's openness is a welcome change from his predecessor, who went all the way to the Supreme Court to hide the RSVP list for a single policy meeting. And transparency is intrinsically good, since in a democracy, very little government activity is legitimately secret.

Transparency reform and government information, however, are no substitutes for journalistic access and original reporting. “In fact, the administration's new openness might even function as little more than another unfiltered route to disseminate its view. If the information is offered to supplant independent reporting -- as in the photo disputes -- and only flows in one direction, then the government simply amplifies its already sizable megaphone. A louder government with less journalism does not enrich our democratic process.

It is odd, though, to now hear the media complaining about the way the Obama Administration is treating it. Not much of a reward for swooning at the One’s feet since he first announced his candidacy for the presidential office.

Kirsten Gillibrand sworn in to the U.S. Senate Today (video)

Watch Kirsten Gillibrand sworn into the U.S. Senate today by Vice President Joe Biden:

Despite Stricter Rules, Obama Administration Opens the Door to Lobbyists

Remember the Democratic primary when the two youthful male candidates for the party’s nomination, Barack Obama and John Edwards, repeatedly roused their supporters on the extreme left by pledging to kick former lobbyists out of the nation’s government?

With much fanfare, our new president, “Yes-I-can” Obama, signed off on ethics rules the other day that restricted lobbyists from serving in his administration. Hours later, the One proceeded to appoint big-time Raytheon lobbyist William Lynn as second in command at the Pentagon.

It gets worse:

Rood and Schwartz at ABC News report this morning that Mark Patterson, a former lobbyist for the big investment firm of Goldman Sachs, will soon be welcomed on board as chief of staff to the newly appointed Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner – the guy who forgot to pay taxes for a couple of years in the recent past.

Here’s the deal:

“Mark Patterson was a registered lobbyist for Goldman until April 11, 2008, according to public filings.

“Patterson first began lobbying for Goldman Sachs in 2005, after working as policy director for then-Senate majority leader Tom Daschle. According to publicly filed lobbying disclosure records, he worked on issues related to the banking committee, climate change and carbon trading and immigration reform, among others.

“Patterson is one of over a dozen recent lobbyists in line for important posts in the Obama administration, despite a presidential order severely restricting the role of lobbyists in his administration, the magazine {National Journal} reported.

“The Obama administration's limitation on lobbyists isn't a direct ban. Lobbyists are still allowed to be a part of the administration working on areas that they have not lobbied on. But the potential appointment of Patterson and others raise questions about just how much the Obama administration will be able to move away from the revolving door model of business that has become so common inside the Beltway.”

So here we are barely a week into the Obama Administration with an already severely compromised Pentagon staff and questionable appointments to lead the Treasury Department in the midst of a deepening financial crisis.

As the cloud of euphoric Obama adulation across the nation gradually fades, I no longer feel quite so alone in my skepticism.

Mobilizing Obama’s Hordes of Sexist Online Minions to Promote the New President’s Agenda

UPDATE:

Here's a quote from Althouse relevant to my post on this topic:

"We'll see how it works out. What was a campaign becomes a big propaganda machine. What proportion of the 13 million want to be on the receiving end of that? And as for new media, how many of us new media outlets will passively pass along the talking points? My idea of new media is that we take the raw material and do something with it. It needs to get out of the control of the one who's sent out the original message. You can distribute your propaganda, but you can't organize it. You can't organize us. The internet is self-organizing, and we will see how it organizes itself. It can't be according to the will of a President."


If you took the trouble during the Democratic primary to scan the readers’ comments on web sites such as Huffington Post and the Daily Kos, you had to be frightened by the unrelenting vulgar sexist and misogynist assaults by Obama supporters directed at Hillary Clinton.

Ever since the debate between then Senators Clinton and Obama hosted by ABC last April, I’ve found the power of Obama’s online shock troops troublesome. Described as mainly youthful, unemployed tech savvy males on the far left of the political spectrum, this demographic commanded an inordinate amount of power.

In the aftermath of the above debate, I posted at Katalusis:

“And heaven help the TV pundit who challenges Obama. It was common practice during the primary for debate moderators to ask Hillary Clinton tough questions while going easy on Obama. That changed on April 16, 2008 when ABC hosted the Philadelphia face off between the two remaining Democratic candidates. Moderators Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos asked Obama several uncomfortable questions, which quickly put him on the defensive. By Friday morning, more than 19,800 comments were posted on ABC News' Web site, the tone overwhelmingly negative.”

ABC soon capitulated and issued an apology for having put the One on the spot.

Therein lies the danger: the possibility of the Obama camp continuing to mobilize its hordes of online minions to outflank the media in winning support for the new president’s programs.

Rutenberg and Nagourney in an article published yesterday at the NY Times wrote:

“WASHINGTON — Lyle McIntosh gave everything he could to Barack Obama’s Iowa campaign. He helped oversee an army that knocked on doors, distributed fliers and held neighborhood meetings to rally support for Mr. Obama, all the while juggling the demands of his soybean and corn farm.


“Asked last week if he and others like him were ready to go all-out again, this time to help President Obama push his White House agenda, Mr. McIntosh paused.

‘“It’s almost like a football season or a basketball season — you go as hard as you can and then you’ve got to take a breather between the seasons,” he said, noting he found it hard to go full-bore during the general election.

“Mr. McIntosh’s uncertainty suggests just one of the many obstacles the White House faces as it tries to accomplish what aides say is one of their most important goals: transforming the YouTubing-Facebooking-texting-Twittering grass-roots organization that put Mr. Obama in the White House into an instrument of government. That is something that Mr. Obama, who began his career as a community organizer, told aides was a top priority, even before he was elected.

“His aides — including his campaign manager — have created a group, Organizing for America, to redirect the campaign machinery in the service of broad changes in health care and environmental and fiscal policy. They envision an army of supporters talking, sending e-mail and texting to friends and neighbors as they try to mold public opinion.

“The organization will be housed in the Democratic National Committee, rather than at the White House. But the idea behind it — that the traditional ways of communicating with and motivating voters are giving way to new channels built around social networking — is also very evident in the White House’s media strategy.

“Like George W. Bush before him, Mr. Obama is trying to bypass the mainstream news media and take messages straight to the public."


Read more of this disturbing development here.

Clinton Offers Gillibrand Helpful Advice at Congratulatory Lunch (AP video)

Gov. Paterson, Secretary of State Clinton, Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand, and Senator Schumer on Sunday. Photo credits: Kathy Willens, AP via the NY Times

UPDATE:

Watch Gillibrand and Clinton at Lunch with Paterson and Schumer (AP video)

Evidently, the anonymous Democratic consultant in the news account mentioned below was a Kennedy or Obama supporter intent on putting Gov. Paterson in his place for daring to pick Congresswoman Kirstin Gillibrand to fill Hillary Clinton’s vacated senate seat instead of Caroline Kennedy.

Just two days ago, Hakim and Confessore at the NY Times quoted an unnamed Democratic consultant accusing Gov. Paterson of alienating the Kennedys, the Cuomos, and the Clintons by naming Congresswoman Kirstin Gillibrand to Hillary Clinton’s senate seat.

The consultant said the governor had angered Secretary of State Clinton by his “willingness to consider Ms. Kennedy in the first place after she endorsed Barack Obama in the presidential race last year.”

It’s no wonder our rumor-mongering consultant chose to remain anonymous. He or she obviously forgot Clinton’s well-publicized appeal to her supporters early on to not oppose Kennedy’s bid for the recently vacated senate seat. Moreover, the consultant was not in the loop for the congratulatory lunch described minutes ago in the NY Times by Sharon Otterman:

“Ms. Gillibrand spoke to reporters after finishing a congratulatory lunch at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York with the newly minted Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Charles E. Schumer, the state’s senior senator, and New York Governor David A. Paterson, who appointed Ms. Gillibrand on Friday to fill Ms. Clinton’s vacated senate seat.

“Ms. Gillibrand said that the four discussed foreign policy and how to best stimulate the flagging economy, and Ms. Clinton had offered her some practical advice on how to be an effective senator. The governor joined Ms. Gillibrand at the news conference that followed, but Ms. Clinton and Mr. Schumer did not appear.

‘“The senator knows that she has very big shoes to fill,” Governor Paterson said, adding that while the state would miss Ms. Clinton, “we will be in a position where we are well served, because Ms. Gillibrand, as a congresswoman, has been outstanding.”’

According to the article, Gillibrand went on to say:

‘“The bulk of Ms. Clinton’s advice to her was about how to organize her office to best serve the many requests that come from constituents across the state. She said she would follow Ms. Clinton’s example so that she could “hit the ground running.”’

Gillibrand will be sworn into office on Tuesday.

Harvard Kennedy School of Government’s Kellerman: Hillary’s First Day at State “Nothing Short of a Triumph”

Barbara Kellerman of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and author of Bad Leadership and Followership gives Hillary Clinton high praise for her first day on the job at the State Department:

Here’s Kellerman’s lead paragraph (emphasis mine):

“Hillary Clinton's first day at the office was nothing short of a triumph. Greeted by cheering throngs - many of them old hands at the State Department convinced that under her leadership at new day dawned for diplomacy - she did not let them down. Not only did she bring with her the polish and panache of seasoned celebrity, she delivered the message they wanted to hear."

And here’s her conclusion (emphasis mine):

“Obviously, the new Secretary of State has her work cut out for her. She faces great challenges abroad. And she faces great challenges at home - not least of which is managing her outsized team, including men like Richard Holbrooke, who is himself outsized, and used to having wide latitude and direct access to the president himself. Still her presentation of self at State gave evidence yet again of Hillary Clinton's strengths and smarts. Even the big boys would be foolish to underestimate her.”

To read the complete article, go here.