Obama's "Optics" Problem?
Over at the Los Angeles Times, "Top of the Ticket" blogger Andrew Malcolm has this interesting look at what he describes as "the increasingly odd political optics of Barack Obama".
He writes:
The former state senator may, in fact, be slaving away on 18-hour policy days. But much of that is closed out of sight. So the public is left to focus on Obama's frequent vacations, golf outings, celebrity gatherings and proclivity to give a speech at the first whiff of trouble.
With no real opposition, Chicago's Democrat pols care little about how insensitive things look.
Any one of these apparent missteps is inconsequential. However, accumulated over his 118 weeks in office, they create the impression of carelessness at best or, worse, arrogance.
What the White House issues are photos of a tieless, laughing Obama, feet up on the historic Oval Office desk, chatting on the phone system that he complains is so decrepit.
What the public sees, while it frets over stubborn unemployment and soaring gas prices, is a diffident Democrat who takes a 17-vehicle motorcade of SUVs and limos to be seen looking at clean-energy cars.
A pontificating president who suggests that one worried commuter buy a new car instead of complaining.
A guy who spent 745 million donated dollars to get into the White House complaining to visiting editors about losing his anonymity and being locked in the presidential bubble that provides service, luxury, power and security unimaginable to most.
Ouch.
There's a bad tendency in modern politics to oversimplify problems -- by blaming matters on a failure to deliver the right message (as Strother Martin put it in "Cool Hand Luke: "What we have here . . . is failure to communicate").
That was the White House's decidedly weak spin in the face of dwindling support for Obamacare: we didn't effectively get our message across -- even though the President delivered dozens upon dozens of sermons on the very topic.
What Malcolm is getting at is something far more deadly for any incumbent facing a tough re-elect -- something deeper-rooted than message-tweaking. And that's tone-deafness, and the idea that a President who campaign so effortlessly four years ago as a comfortable, casual, sleeves-rolled-up, watch-me-drain-the-three kind of populist doesn't understand how his images and actions as an elected elite annoy and irritate less privileged Americans.
Do you think Malcolm is on to something, or is all the carping about motorcades and feet on the desk just that -- more blogospheric white noise?
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Comments :
Jan '11
Re: Obama's "Optics" Problem?
Obama doesn't care what you think.
It's an ongoing theme (for me) that American politics depends on a useful fiction: "elections make decisions." Well, not really. When you have dozens of issues, but your electoral options are a mere binary choice between two candidates, the election result doesn't have enough information to distinguish one issue from another. Of course, you might be compelled to object: "we elect people, not issues." True, but we elect people on the basis of where they stand on issues.
No matter how you slice it, an election is an imperfect method of how people communicate what they want done with the power they bestow on politicians. It is, after all, our power. They just wield it in our name.
Being practical people, we make up for the imperfect communication by ad hoc politicking ... the people cheer, shout, scream, boo, hiss. Writers and critics complain and apply pressure. People write letters, make speeches. We compensate for the imperfection of elections with lots of non-electoral communication.
That's how it's supposed to work.
Obama ignores it. He won. He heard the 2008 election, and that's all he's heard since.
Re: Obama's "Optics" Problem?
From wikipedia:
So he could put his feet up on it.
Jan '11
Re: Obama's "Optics" Problem?
I understand that President Obama enjoys playing golf, takes working vacations w/ expensive security, and snarls up traffic during rush hour in my home town. It's part of being president. I do object to putting his feet up on our desk. That is just disrespectful.
Re: Obama's "Optics" Problem?
If Obama makes it look as if he has disdain for the job, it is because he does have disdain for the job. I would not be surprised if, when January 2013 comes around, he is disliked almost as much as Herbert Hoover was. His stock is slipping, and it is slipping fast.
Sep '10
Re: Obama's "Optics" Problem?
He needs an Oval Office Linebacker to straighten things out.
Sep '10
Re: Obama's "Optics" Problem?
I had to give myself a few minutes to read the source material, and then to regain my senses after the shock of seeing something like this on the LA Times site.
That's a pretty exhaustive run-down of the evidence for what we all know instinctively: our president is an out-of-touch elitist. Nicely done. I've never heard of Malcolm but I'll look for him in the future.
Jun '10
Re: Obama's "Optics" Problem?
It's not disdain, Professor. He just misses being able to go out of the house and not be recognized. He hates being one of the people... you know, one of us normals.
Jan '11
Re: Obama's "Optics" Problem?
Thank you James! While I didn't recall the story behind the desk - I was aware that there was one and seing anyone with their feet upon it is so very disrespectful.
The range of 'optics' produced by this White House is bigger than any I can recall - from the obviously manufactured rallies/press conferences to trainwrecks like the golf outings and that picture. It's hard to believe that they are that stupid - but then you look at their policies......
Edited on Apr 26, 2011 at 2:34pmApr '11
Re: Obama's "Optics" Problem?
The types of image problems that we are now talking about are the types of issues he has always had, going back at least as far as the "bitter clingers" comments. Not enough people noticed way back when because he promised to perform miracles. If Obama gets unemployment down to 5 percent and inflation under control by election day, most people won't care whether he has an "optics" problem or even real character defects. If you deliver on your promises, people will tolerate all kinds of misbehavior. The reason why people are taking notice now is because he has failed to deliver his promised miracles.
Mar '11
Re: Obama's "Optics" Problem?
James Lileks: From wikipedia:
So he could put his feet up on it. · Apr 26 at 12:34pm
I surprised he did not return it with the bust of Winston Churchill, especially after the Brits did not really gush with appreciation for the iPod with his best speeches.
Mar '11
Re: Obama's "Optics" Problem?
I think Sarah Palin would look great behind that desk, and I'm sure she is smart enough not to put her feet up on it (his putting his feet up is probably some subconscious compensation for his lack of executive experience behind any desk). She would quite likely bring the bust of Winston Churchill back, also.
Well, any Republican who can defeat Mr Obama, without being too Rino-squishy, would be fine behind the desk, also.
Even Mr Trump would be an improvement, but I hope we can do better than that.
Now let me get to that long piece on Republican defeatism... it looks very good.
Edited on Apr 26, 2011 at 2:49pmJan '11
Re: Obama's "Optics" Problem?
Most of my friends are pleasant, educated, successful women who like to consider themselves "nice people," and equate that with buying the whole liberal agenda, with Obama perched like a cherry on top. (One of them even misses Jimmy Carter.) They are blithely unaware of Obama's frequent displays of contempt for Congress, the Constitution, the American people, our allies - and if I happen to mention an example, they're making excuses for him before I even finish the sentence
If just one of my Nice Women Friends cracks and admits that Obama is not quite as awesome as expected, I'll become an optimist about the next election.
Jun '10
Re: Obama's "Optics" Problem?
James Lileks: From wikipedia:
So he could put his feet up on it. · Apr 26 at 12:34pm
I suppose it's an improvement over what went on in the Clinton Oval Office.
Mar '11
Re: Obama's "Optics" Problem?
~Paules
James Lileks: From wikipedia:
So he could put his feet up on it. · Apr 26 at 12:34pm
I suppose it's an improvement over what went on in the Clinton Oval Office. · Apr 26 at 4:47pm
I don't know if the desk was involved - I hope not.
Sep '10
Re: Obama's "Optics" Problem?
Quote: David Williamson
~Paules
James Lileks: From wikipedia:
Many presidents have used a large partners' desk called the Resolute Desk, so named because it was made from the timbers of the British frigate HMS Resolute. The ship was frozen in Arctic ice and abandoned, but later found and freed by American seamen. It was refurbished and presented as a gift from the United States to Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom in 1856.
So he could put his feet up on it. · Apr 26 at 12:34pm
I suppose it's an improvement over what went on in the Clinton Oval Office. · Apr 26 at 4:47pm
I don't know if the desk was involved - I hope not.
So that's how Nicholas Cage was able to get under the desk to get the secret message, Obama had his feet on the desk. I wonder if Monica still lives there?
May '10
Re: Obama's "Optics" Problem?
Obama does have an optics problem. I can't see him elected to a second term.
Mar '11
Re: Obama's "Optics" Problem?
Our President isn't awed by the magnitude of the office he was elected to---and must yield to another, eventually. His affect is of one bored, irritable, dissatisfied, even capricious: not the 'servant of servants', but an ascendant deity recognized (however insufficiently) as is due to him. GWB gave the impression that he honored and respected the Office. Obama plays POTUS on TV.
Better men than he didn't bleed and die so that he can play golf in wartime, and indulge whims: but to put our nation's interest first, and to protect what we hold dear; to speak plain truth to us, as one of us. He's the first 'American Idol' President, and an expensive indulgence. It's more than a job with an awesome aircraft. Washington stood there. Adams. Jefferson. Lincoln. Better men than he.
Mar '11
Re: Obama's "Optics" Problem?
Margaret Ball: Most of my friends are pleasant, educated, successful women who like to consider themselves "nice people," and equate that with buying the whole liberal agenda, with Obama perched like a cherry on top. (One of them even misses Jimmy Carter.) They are blithely unaware of Obama's frequent displays of contempt for Congress, the Constitution, the American people, our allies - and if I happen to mention an example, they're making excuses for him before I even finish the sentence
If just one of my Nice Women Friends cracks and admits that Obama is not quite as awesome as expected, I'll become an optimist about the next election. · Apr 26 at 4:36pm
My experience exactly. Nice self-sufficient working Women who seem unaware that the economic security they've worked so hard for is endangered. It's always that eeeevil Rush Limbaugh, and Bush, and Cheney. But now and again, someone expresses a shadow of a doubt...
Dec '10
Re: Obama's "Optics" Problem?
The "optics", as Malcolm describes them, are appalling, at least to anyone with a sense of decency. But, we are living in strange times. Check out Dana Milbank in the WAPO:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/obama-lost-in-thought/2011/04/26/AF0FrwsE_story.html
Life imitiates art. This is the "Being There" presidency.
Edited on Apr 27, 2011 at 4:58amApr '11
Re: Obama's "Optics" Problem?
I don't necessarily disagree with the larger point being made here, but sorry gang, the feet on the desk thing is just not a big deal.