The American Spectator : Obama Engagement

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Obama Engagement

By The Prowler on 8.9.10 @ 6:08AM

Smarting on foreign policy. Separate vacations.

SHOW OFF
Last week, the Washington Post's David Ignatius wrote about one of the odder White House briefings he's attended. This one involved Iran: "The White House chose an unusual way to send its signals to Tehran. A small group of journalists was invited to a 'background session' on Iran policy with 'senior National Security Staff.' The briefer turned out to be Obama. An official said later that the president plans more of these unscripted, informal meetings."

Ignatius is right. It was a bit odd, and White House senior staff, including chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, will have President Obama doing more of them. "It isn't because we want to have him show off how smart he is," says a White House source. "It's to blunt criticism that he's not engaged in foreign policy."

According to White House sources, a number of senior Obama officials are concerned about anecdotal stories going around town about the President's seeming disengagement on foreign policy issues. They cite one in which the President is said to have cut short what was intended to be a briefing on Afghanistan. "The NSC guys came out of it and said that because there were no action items, he didn't want it," said another White House source.

While not specific to foreign policy, there is a mounting whispering campaign in Washington about the current President's disenchantment with the job he currently holds. "You hear it a lot from White House staff," says a Democrat lobbyist in the financial services sector, who worked on the Obama transition team. "The President is tired of dealing or bored with all the B.S., or that things haven't broken the way he wanted and it's not shaping up to be the job that he thought it was going to be. The way some of them talk they make the President sound like a recent college graduate unhappy with his first job stuck in the mailroom."

SEPARATE WAYS
The fact that it appeared in early August that the President and First Lady were essentially taking separate vacations -- him to Chicago to celebrate his birthday, her to Spain -- didn't help the overall narrative the White House had been trying to shape for their "summer of recovery."

"The Bush guys have their 'Mission Accomplished' banner and we have our 'Summer of Recovery," says a current White House communications aide. "We deserve to take some hits for that."

To that end, the White House communications team is said to be working on a fall media assault that will show a more engaged and energized President Obama. There are discussions about offering all-day access to the major broadcast networks and some friendly cable outlets for "behind the scenes" specials.

"We tend to have more editorial control or at least creative control of those kinds of segments," says the comms aide. "We set the day's agenda, they just cover it like it's a real day."

Letter to the Editor View all comments (65) | Leave a comment

drudge ette obama| 8.9.10 @ 6:18AM

Michelle Obama has a tin ear of epic proportions. Let's get the American people to pay for this junket by throwing in a "state lunch" with the Spanish Royalty....

Can someone tell me what the hell she was wearing? Black workout tights every day? Such strange clothing.

On a positive note...Hillary Clinton traveled with gusto the last year of Bill's presidency. It was like someone feeding over the boiled shrimp platter at a party. Michelle's increased vacations must signal that internal polling indicates a one term stint. Keep travelling, lady. Spend my money like water.

Melvin| 8.9.10 @ 7:31AM

Oh come on now, drudge ette obama don't be so hard on ol Michelle. Ya got to admit Rahm looked pretty good in that Spanish flamenco dance. Such intensity, such passion, such amore......Hmm maybe it was Rahm's IDF tattoo that gave him away.

beveryafraid| 8.9.10 @ 8:54AM

About the black workout tights: If that spandex ever lets go, there will be a lot of collateral damage to innocent unfortunates in the area...

Alan Brooks| 8.9.10 @ 12:34PM

Obama is doing the correct thing making an alliance with Vietnam against certain enemies in Asia.

MAJ Mike| 8.9.10 @ 1:30PM

Thank you, Alan Brooks, for the wonderfully irrelevant bit of brown-nosing. I love a good, fawning non-sequitur in the middle of a thread of actual discussion.

Grzmlyk| 8.9.10 @ 2:12PM

Well, when it comes to honesty, I suppose this is progress: You've gone from straining to sound intelligent to making increasingly ludicrious assertions and now to foisting blatant jack-assery onto this site.

Liberals wear different masks - the nonsense-spouting elite professorial egghead, the phony patriot, the non-judgmental paragon of compassion, the ersatz "man of the people."

In the end, there are only three liberal archetypes: The fools, the beneficiaries and the crooks.

Brooks is the first.

AMENBRO| 8.9.10 @ 2:24PM

Automate your idiocy Al you ignorant slut

AMENBRO| 8.9.10 @ 2:24PM

Automate your idiocy Al you ignorant slut

Wayen| 8.9.10 @ 10:50PM

Hey Alan, do you ever notice people scratching their heads when you're in one on one conversations with them?? Were you an ADD child?

loulou| 8.9.10 @ 4:49PM

beveryafraid: Too funny!
Michelle has no clue about her unfortunate appearance. A woman with a hog-body like hers should be wearing a muu muu or a caftan.

WayneH| 8.9.10 @ 10:53PM

Michelle Obuma, but nice arms don't you think??

RN-Army-AF-Mom| 8.9.10 @ 10:28PM

Michelle gives new meaning to the term, 'Paid Vacation Benefits", doesn't she? Maybe it's her way of stimulating the economy. Too bad it's the economy of Spain. Hope she remembers to apologize for America being such a great country and the other socialist wanna-be's (who, btw, only get to keep about 40 cents on their earned dollar)... for sucking so bad. But not to worry, she's working on that....we'll be mediocre soon, too...

Mr. Potato Head| 8.9.10 @ 6:32AM

Reminds me of the movie "The Candidate" starring the loony Robert Redford.

Just wait until ObamaCare is declared unconstitutional!

Brian Mc| 8.9.10 @ 7:14AM

Good point, Mr. H

If the mindset that rocks this Nation in the modern day had been in place in the mid 18th century, We the People would never have crossed the Appalachians. So, what happened?

The New Deal or was it passage of the Federal Income Tax?

When I hear a candidate state that they want to 'fight' for me, I turn and run the other way. They have me confused with a whiner. It's a shame we cannot jump in our covered wagons and head west anymore. We must stand and fight, against those who state that they are in Washington to fight for us. The battle for this country has already begun; God knows where it will lead.

Grzmlyk| 8.9.10 @ 2:13PM

Mr. Potato Head, if Obama gets a third Supreme Court selection - my guess is Sean Penn is next up - I guarantee you the Constitution will be declared unconstitutional.

Don L| 8.9.10 @ 7:02AM

A small cadre of government hand-choosen news disseminators meets with the boss. Is there much here different here than watching the old soviet union's Pravda propagandists at work? The mainstream media have sold their souls to an ideology that is i80 degrees from that which is understood to be worthy of constitutional protection -against America and its constitution - the pinnicle of historic freedom.

It is time to open them up to legal redress and public scorn through a rating system, but alas, do we have enough understanding people left to know the value of an honest press or did they all die with our forefathers?.

Granny Jan and Jihad Kitty| 8.9.10 @ 7:46AM

Great, more off telepromptor moments with the gaffe-prone, mongrel genius.

Ret. Marine| 8.9.10 @ 7:50AM

Nothing says "i'm loosing control faster" than to have the usurper-n-theif standing at the front of his teleprompter with anothers words and lies.

CharlieEcho| 8.9.10 @ 8:29AM

If he ever had control. He lost, or forfeited, control as soon as the results were announced that one November day so long ago. Obama's record was a do nothing record. He can no longer sit in the hallway and vote present. We ,or at least a majority of voters, expected him to lead. His handlers expect him to look like he is leading. His handlers have him bridled and headed in the direction they desire, but the man stumbles on his own past. 2012 seems such a long way off and the GOP still can't find the handles. We need a GOP majority to slow the damage until this administraiton can be turned out.

juno| 8.9.10 @ 8:16AM

Karl Rove said that his White House sources say that Obama doesn't show up in the Oval Office until 9:30am every day. Maybe it would have been a good idea to see the guy's grades before we hired him to be the most powerful person in the world.

Bobothree| 8.9.10 @ 2:01PM

Maybe its the "midnight basketball"?

Appleby| 8.9.10 @ 2:26PM

"The way some of them talk they make the President sound like a recent college graduate unhappy with his first job stuck in the mailroom."

BINGO!

Haven't I been saying that he sounds just exactly like the sophomore class of 1968? Welcome to the next iteration of "Back to the Future!"

fordor| 8.9.10 @ 4:14PM

Appleby, one thing I have against Sarah Palin is that she quit her job. I wonder if there's a way to get this guy to do that? I promise not to hold it against him.

RN-Army-AF-Mom| 8.9.10 @ 10:23PM

Hey Fordor, I was with you on that; I couldn't understand why she quit mid-term, and it still feels off to me. But then I read that she had so many friv0lous lawsuits against her it was taking her time from actually governing to fighting lawsuits--and the problem of paying for attorneys to fight those suits. So she left to raise cash with her book and speeches, etc to fend off her attackers. I still think she's a stand-up chickie and really don't understand this venomous hatred toward her from the left. Oh wait, I get it; she's pretty, well-adjusted, married to a hottie, a bunch of cute kids and an outdoorsy tough girl--the kind of person many would aspire to be, but haven't quite gotten off their duffs to do it. Jealousy is ugly, isn't it? I read her book -- very dynamic, hardworking, common-sense lady...Go Sarah 2020!!

thegsmiths4| 8.9.10 @ 8:29AM

"We tend to have more editorial control or at least creative control of those kinds of segments," says the comms aide. "We set the day's agenda, they just cover it like it's a real day."

Boy our media is a bunch of useful idiots. They won't do their own reporting. They just wait until it is hand spooned to them.

Anastasia Mather| 8.9.10 @ 9:07AM

This statement struck me upside one side of my head and down the other.

He thinks all he has to do is act the part of President, and he gets to order the world to his liking! I think he's gone beyond narcissism to full-blown sociopathy.

russel| 8.9.10 @ 8:31AM

The thrill of the chase , the campaign . Now boredom . Ahhh . As soon as he has to fight with the opposite party , coming soon , he'll wish there was a resort on the moon .

JP| 8.9.10 @ 8:40AM

Could it be that the President may decide not to run for a 2nd term? If his party gets hammered in November and they lose thier super majorities (they may even lose control of the House), the President will certainly find out how unpleasent life can be. For almost 20 months he has lived a charmed political life. He got his signature agenda items into law, nominated 2 SCOTUS justices, thrown a gazillion parties, barbecues, and fundraisers; he's pretty much had an adoring press to cover up his weaknesses; and his political opposition was powerless to stop or even modify his agenda. Life was good.

But, the President never had an executive background -that is, other than campaigning. If managing a campagin is akin to running an organization that would be news to many. It doesn't surprise me in the least that the President is bored. Many autocrats get bored with the details of democratic politics. This President in particular is probably the most illsuited man to enter the Oval Office since Harding or Carter. And both these men were expirenced politicans.

It would come to no surprise to me if President Obama announces in 2011 or early 2012 that he wishes to "spend more time with his family" and decides not run for re-election. Unlike Clinton, the President doesn't have the stomach for the office. He would much rather rule than govern. It should be interesting.

Rmm| 8.9.10 @ 9:24AM

If that scenario plays out, then you deserve three Hallelujah's. This hopey, changey stuff has grown stale long ago.
The only fly in the ointment now is the Republicans don't have a torch bearer.

Mark MacInnis| 8.9.10 @ 11:39AM

I called in February of this year that Obama will not be the nominee of his party in 2012....at that time, I thought it would be because the party itself would revolt in fear of losing all cred (as well as being dealt minority party status for a decade or more) by renominating him....now it appears possible that he might pull the plug himself, maybe in a Johnson-esque move on the war in Afghanistan that he hopes will salvage the historical reputation of his administration. He's probably looking at how much fun Bill Clinton is having as an ex-president...

Either way. I'll bet the mortgage (not just the payment) that Obama will be out and Hillary in for the 2012 gunfight....are we looking at a Hillary-Sarah catfight in the 2012 Presidential? What a spectacle that would be....

Petronius| 8.9.10 @ 8:40AM

The ultimate irony of this age would be to witness a French Revolution successfully carried out against a Leftist Regime. Robespierre call your office.

gypsy| 8.9.10 @ 8:45AM

He's bored with the job? are you F**KING KIDDING ME? Heads up TelePrompter In Chief: its not about you, you stuck up self centered Marxist loser! You're the President of the greatest country in world history, the leader of 300 million people, so trade in the adult diapers for some big boy pants and act like a damned leader.

And while you're at it, tell your wife that a separate vacation at taxpayer expense during your birthday is a damned deal breaker

Mimi| 8.9.10 @ 5:08PM

OMG Gypsy....This one has got to be...THE POST OF THE DAY!!! Thanks for the laugh!

Louis Jenkins| 8.9.10 @ 8:53AM

The Drudge Report states 75 K per day for Michelle's vacation. Now that's what I call a vacation! Time to cull back a bit Michelle. We're tired of reading about the luxurious times that she's having. Meanwhile, we're going about the business of helping run the country. And JP, you're right, the Pretender n Chief would rather "rule" the country. Hope it doesn't come to that.

jrp61356| 8.10.10 @ 3:26PM

So she's out spending $75 grand a day on a vacation, while the country continues to mire in recession, with spending out of control and unemployment still hovering around 10%? These people are only looking out for themselves and whatever they can get. Time to throw them overboard.

Mimi| 8.9.10 @ 9:07AM

You just GO GIRL !.....Another , salty , bold and blunt one. Boy they are sure "milking it ". They like the PERKS!! One has to wonder if they know their time is short !

thegsmiths4| 8.9.10 @ 10:03AM

I'm beginning to think Obama is a puppet meant to distract while the handlers do their dirty work behind the curtain.

He is nothing but the great OZ.

That explains why he needs a teleprompter. He is just parroting what they tell him to say.

The handlers refuse to give him anything of substance to do. They know he has an empty head and can't think on his feet. Obama thinks he can because he believed all the press put out to get him elected.

The vacations are part of the distraction. Obama is able to take so many because he doesn't have anything else to do.

Foreign governments hold him in contempt. Meetings with him are a waste of time. They have to play along and be part of the show if they want a meeting with the handlers.

Obama is pouting because he has realized just how much he was used. He served his main purpose, to put the handlers in power. Now they treat him like the puppet he is.

His situation is similar to that of a powerful businessman's relative: wined and dined until the deal was done, them dumped.

Pete| 8.9.10 @ 10:52AM

"The President is tired of dealing or bored with all the B.S."

I am still undecided between ethnic puppet and entitled narcissistic moron. The bored schtick could just be impatience for some "global governance" role.

jrp61356| 8.10.10 @ 3:31PM

Excellent points! The comment about the empty head is especially true. I still believe that Zero was a below-average college student (who got by because of Affirmative Action) and that is why his transcripts have been sealed. Consider this - if he really was a super duper whiz kid in college, don't you think the media would be running his transcripts up the flagpole every day for everyone to see?

Headless Hopper| 8.9.10 @ 10:21AM

Clinton was bored as Governor and he soon was bored as President. (You can tell the shift when he began to hang out with the "glitterati") Kennedy was a hard partyier too. These men saw The Presidency as a prize rather than an opportunity to serve.

Tim| 8.9.10 @ 10:47AM

Possible speech from the First Lady....

"For the first time in my life I am truly proud of my Country because finally a person of color can abuse power and display absolute greed in the face of an economic melt down just like my White Brothers and Sisters have done in years and centuries past both in the US and many other countries.

And you know what, it feels good to live high on the hog while the poor working stiffs are getting the shaft

Too bad--- we can't do this forever, that darn stupid Constitution and that silly restriction of Presidential Rule

Of all the Gin Joints, we have to be appointed leaders, in a country that forces term limits on it's rulers. God Almighty!"..........

Jenny| 8.9.10 @ 11:34AM

You can have dinner with the king, too. At Burger King. And I promise it won't cost a million bucks.

Spinning Outa Control| 8.9.10 @ 11:52AM

This is too rich. Obama is "bored" with the job of being President of the United States, so he is just going through the motions. Maybe he should use some of his thug tactics to muscle the NBA to put him on one of the two teams in the NBA finals. He is certainly working on his basketball resume with all his photo-ops with basketball champions. As for a "new" strategy to control his media image with "pretend" days at the office "like it's a real" work day, that's all that he's done so far. It's just been hard for him to suffer disappointment with his so very successful "non-working" agenda not getting through to the numbskulls who report on the White House. You know, the same problem he has with most all Americans generally -- they are too stupid to appreciate his fine-tuned skills as an inspiring leader and his out-of-this-world brilliance at governing. It must be really difficult to put up with all the "little" people. Poor, poor man. Maybe he needs a vacation. Or better yet, he could take an early retirement and enjoy his golden parachute while he shoots hoops in the NBA finals to the cheers of the crowd. Can hear it all now: "Go, Obama, go!!! Get out now!!!"

Dixie Pixie| 8.9.10 @ 1:21PM

Why would Obama want to play on a NBA team in a honest game. After all, for his birthday, Obama assembled his NBA dream team centered around himself. He also created the opposition team assuring his team would win. We the people paid for his personal indulgence.

To find a comparison, One would have to look all the way back to the Roman Emperor Commodus to find similar behavior.

Reinhard| 8.9.10 @ 2:59PM

You're insulting Commodus...

Dixie Pixie| 8.9.10 @ 7:18PM

Reinhard – The only insult to the Roman Emperor Commodus is being linked to such a lightweight indulger as Obama. Commodus would kill thousands of beasts and men in one afternoon for his personal amusement.

Commodus, Nero and of course Gaius Caligula are the gold standard of political indulgence.
Obama is just starting out and will take some time to catch up to such masters.

FastJohnny| 8.9.10 @ 11:55AM

But no dessert, because "dessert is not a right."

jackwaggon| 8.9.10 @ 2:13PM

No Johnny, in her highness' words, "Dessert is not a right" Well, hell, everytime they show the bitch in Spain, she's got an icecream cone shoved in her piehole! For me but not for thee.

nohype| 8.9.10 @ 12:36PM

Almost two years ago a perceptive woman from Alaska said this about Obama, "My fellow citizens, the American presidency is not supposed to be a journey of 'personal discovery.' " So why are rumors of Obama's boredom with the job any surprise?

JeffW| 8.9.10 @ 12:55PM

"The way some of them talk they make the President sound like a recent college graduate unhappy with his first job stuck in the mailroom."

Well duh. Look at his record, this is his first real job! You don't get executive experience by voting present all the time. Some of us were beating our head on the wall when he claimed executive expierance running his presidential campaign. Anyone familiar with his record in Illinois knows Axelrod called all the shots on that one. I only wish he was back in the mailroom instead of running the whole show.

Fist of the Fleet| 8.9.10 @ 12:58PM

20 years ago this week Operation Desert Storm started. No mention of it anywhere that I have seen. How soon will it be before we forget 9/11?
Maybe the boredom will fade when we get whacked again. The inexperience and lack of mental acumen in this Administration will show and America will feel it for generations to come.

We're screwed.

Emma| 8.9.10 @ 1:41PM

I'm glad I didn't have my mouth full of coke when I read Rahm's line assuring us that they aren't just trying to show everybody how smart the precedent is. Gee, that's a relief. I was all worried about exactly that point. not.

Bobothree| 8.9.10 @ 2:10PM

His lack of staying power was predicted prior to his election. Obama has never been able to maintain interest in any position he has had and almost from the moment he starts in a position he is looking to move on to the next one.

So where's he go from here. God, watch your back!

saleboter| 8.9.10 @ 3:37PM

"The President is tired of dealing or bored with all the B.S., or that things haven't broken the way he wanted and it's not shaping up to be the job that he thought it was going to be"

So he climed the ladder of sucess only to find it leaning against the wrong wall. Too bad!

Redstateboy| 8.9.10 @ 5:19PM

"The President is tired of dealing or bored with all the B.S., or that things haven't broken the way he wanted and it's not shaping up to be the job that he thought it was going to be"

So he climed the ladder of sucess only to find it leaning against the wrong wall. Too bad!

For Us!

JeffT| 8.9.10 @ 6:21PM

As many astute readers will recall, the Obamas were bored after one week in the White House. They told us this as her majesty was reading to some students in some school, somewhere, far from the maddening crowd at the White House. He wanted the title, not the job. It's a resume enhancer to the gifted one.

John II| 8.9.10 @ 6:50PM

"The way some of them talk they make the President sound like a recent college graduate unhappy with his first job stuck in the mailroom."

Well, I'll been thinking for the past 18 or so months that things are pretty bad with the Professor's patent-medicine show.

But I was mistaken. Things are much worse.

Character is destiny, according to Heraclitus, and we've got an emotional 16-year-old for President.

John II| 8.9.10 @ 9:12PM

Correction: I'VE been thinking. But who can write straight in such stuttering times?

RN-Army-AF-Mom| 8.9.10 @ 10:29PM

I think Michelle should run for president....of Cuba.....

ts| 8.9.10 @ 10:59PM

I still say his ultimate goal is to run the UN and the "new world order"... The Presidency of the United States is only a stepping stone for him. This is the reason he caters to the Muslim countries with such zeal. The puppetmasters' have it all planned out... Be watchful....

Alana| 8.11.10 @ 2:56PM

Agreed.

WayneH| 8.9.10 @ 11:04PM

President of the US is not good enough for this tyrant. He wants to rule the world. By executive order he probably thinks he can just cede presidential power to the UN and then move to the president of that distinguished body. What a loser.

Colin Foy| 8.10.10 @ 12:25AM

Michelle B. is just the latest in a long line of DemocRat "Beards." I knew service buddies stationed at Little Rock AFB who witnessed Bill Clinton coming out of gay bars at all hours of the morning when he was governor of Arkansas. Rumour has it he and the late Sen. Paul Tsongas would go "Toes to Jesus" on occasion. There's also a nasty rumour coming out of Chicago accusing President B. Hussein Obama and Rahm Immanuel of being long time members of an exclusive windy city gay club called "Man Country." Sources indicate that all membership records from that place have been either destroyed or lost. If Hillary's billing records from the Rose Law Firm and Obama's mother's passport files and records can be "disappeared" then so can anything else. Cheers!

Laine| 8.10.10 @ 1:43AM

Obama said right from the beginning that he was the "ideas man" (the Soros warmed over marxist ideas) and would be delegating the actual work (to Red Nancy). However, there still appears too much "boring stuff" left to do between vacations, golfing, sucking up to dictators, partying with celebs, acting like one on TV talk shows etc. Even reading speeches isn't as much fun since the crowd has become less adulating. He really thought all he needed to do was vote "present" . It worked for him on every other affirmative action position and job he was handed.

jrp61356| 8.10.10 @ 3:40PM

And to think that we got stuck with this guy because 52% of the voters were either too dumb, too lazy, or too liberal to see him for what he really is.