Views on News • February 5th, 2009

Quick hits

by Chris Lato

First, my apologies for not checking in as often as usual in recent weeks. Work duties call, and I feel lucky to be able to say I have been keeping busy lately.

Second, please make sure to tune in to Wisconsin Public Radio tomorrow morning from 8-9 a.m. as I join host Joy Cardin to discuss the ‘Week in Review.’ There’s plenty going on - there will be no shortage of things to talk about.

Speaking of, what has happened to President Obama’s communication skills? The same guy who ran a bulletproof campaign that enjoyed relatively positive press coverage has, as an administration, morphed into The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight.

The president’s recent fumbles (on the Daschle disaster and economic stimulus meltdown, to name but two) are fuel for the critics’ fire – those who accused Obama of being little more than an empty suit lacking the experience and substance for the big job.

Critics need to cut the new president a bit of slack. He did exactly the right thing by admitting he screwed up on the Tom Daschle nomination (to say nothing of Bill Richardson). A combination of things are at play here, including:

The guy’s brand-new at the job. There are bound to be stumbles.

The unprecedented, fawning coverage of Obama has set up impossibly high expectations.

The press seems to take some delight in building ‘em up, only to tear ‘em down. 

The press likes conflict, and for a change the GOP has united behind a cause that gets the base all fired up: the stimulus package, which critics contend is little more than Democrat pork-barrel spending unbound.

All that said, President Obama is facing his first real test as a leader and a communicator. The game is his to lose. He needs an aggressive, streamlined message on why the stimulus package is needed right now, or else those falling public opinion ratings will continue to plummet.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 5th, 2009 at 5:23 pm and is filed under Views on News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.