(The Oval Office, December 29, 2009. Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)
Posted on 01/02/2010 6:08:15 AM PST by kristinn
Richard Nixon had advertising executive H.R. Haldeman; Ronald Reagan had image master Mike Deaver; Barack Obama has public relations guru David Axelrod.
All three men understood the power of visuals in communicating the strengths of the presidents they served on the campaign trail and in the office of the presidency.
I don’t know where David Axelrod has been since President Obama began his ten-day Christmas vacation in Hawaii, but it is safe to say he is goofing off as much as his boss.
(The Oval Office, December 29, 2009. Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)
(AP Photo by Chris Carlson, December 31, 2009)
(Official White House photo by Pete Souza, December 31, 2009)
Since the Christmas Day terror attack on Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on approach to Detroit, Axelrod and Team Obama have failed in their most basic duty of reassuring the American public that the president is on the job. It took four days, from when the attack occurred Friday morning Hawaii time to Monday afternoon Washington time, for Obama to be seen ‘on the job’ when he made a statement before the media about the terror attack.
Over that time span, the administration failed to update the White House web site with any mention of the attack.
In Obama’s absence, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano were sent out on the Sunday talk shows (except for Fox) to spin the administration line that “the system worked.”
That PR strategy was mocked across the boards, forcing the administration to put Obama in front of the cameras for the first time since he went on vacation.
Obama’s presentation Monday was emotionless in delivery and casual in its presentation. Wearing an open collar shirt, Obama looked like a man who showed up at a formal club without the required attire and was forced to don the club jacket hanging in the closet to get in.
Obama also seemed painfully uncomfortable without his TelePrompter security blanket. He struggled with the text at times and reflexively swiveled his head from side-to-side even as he stared down at the the printed remarks laid out on the podium before him.
That Obama went golfing right after he told the American people he “will not rest until we find all who were involved and hold them accountable” undermined whatever seriousness of purpose the administration was trying to convey.
When internal reviews by the administration started to show that the government had enough information to stop the terror attack before it happened but failed to act, Obama was hustled back before the cameras the next day to get in front of the bad news–standard PR disaster strategy. However, Obama was hustled in front of the cameras so fast the satellite feeds weren’t ready so the cable networks went live with only a ghostly audio address by a ticked-off sounding Obama. Video of the speech was shown later in the day but the damage was done. Team Obama was flailing.
Worse still was the failure of Team Obama to distribute still photos of Obama taking meetings and briefings on the terror attack.
The White House told the media that Obama was getting briefed several times a day and was participating in meetings and conference calls in between gym workouts, golf, tennis and beach outings, picnicking, snorkeling, fine dining and taking over a movie theater.
However, it was only yesterday–a full week since the terror attack–that the administration released a photo of a hard(ly)-working Obama on the telephone. But the photo is not featured on the White House Web site, instead it was posted to the White House’s Flickr account.
What is on the White House Web site’s front page for the third day in a row is the White House ‘photo of the day’ that features an empty Oval Office save for a cleaning woman running a vacuum in front of the president’s vacated desk. A more telling image could not be presented to the public of an absent leader, yet that is the message Team Obama has conveyed to the world for the past three days.
It is a time-honored public relations technique to release photos of the president taking meetings and otherwise appearing to be focused on the nation’s business while on vacation or away from the White House when a crisis strikes. While Team Obama focused on keeping the prying eyes of media cameramen out of sight of Obama for most of his vacation activities, they failed to provide a countering image of Obama at work behind the scenes.
Yesterday, in addition to releasing the one photo of Obama at work, Team Obama allowed the media to photograph Obama at his movie outing and golf game.
The photos of Obama on the golf course show him playing with a passion that was sorely lacking in his initial speech to the nation about the Christmas Day terror attack.
David Axelrod used public imagery to create an air of inevitability of an Obama presidency months before the election. He created the aura of a co-presidency between Obama and President George W. Bush in the two months between Obama’s election and inauguration.
The whereabouts of Axelrod and his magic touch are unknown. But in their absence Obama, who has been living like an aloof king at his $4000 per night $8.9 million Hawaiian vacation estate, is looking more and more like an emperor with no clothes.
The optics of this are not pretty.
WHAT is he doing in THAT picture???? Heavens!!!
No, and speaking of - how come she's not in any of these pics?
And once again, he extends that middle finger . . . seems to be a habit with him.
Plus, he's not even looking at to whom he's speaking. He's looking at the camera. What a doofus!
Plus, he's not even looking at to whom he's speaking. He's looking at the camera. What a doofus!
“We stand in his way to complete his Marxist agenda.”
No, we stand in his way of completing his Muslim agenda. Recent attacks by Muslims slow down his agenda of turning us into a Muslim nation.
And speaking of his over sized shirt, BarackO looks like he is mysteriously shrinking.
That looks like a Kirby vacuum cleaner.
A local has put together a summary of Barry’s Island Frolic.
http://armchairhawaii.com/obama_hawaii/obama-christmas-2009/index.html
It’s not complete- it left out Barry’s bizarre Chinese Fire Drill at the Luana Hills Country Club on Tuesday.
And neglects to note that Reggie Love is usually part of Barry’s twosome.
Brian Williams made a fool of himself doing the bidding of the White House last night ,
pretending Barry spent most of his vacation working on national security.
Nightly News , Jan 1, 2010
WILLIAMS : “ ..we’re told the he played a few rounds of golf some tennis with his wife, but, mostly it’s been a working vacation ..”
Why? The situation is an absolute no-brainer. Don't let Moslem terrorists onto airplanes. Can't tell who they are? Ask any FReeper.
Doing the wrong thing takes a lot more meetings than doing the right thing.
http://armchairhawaii.com/obama_hawaii/obama-christmas-2009/index.html"
Wow! Quick! Capture that before the White House discovers it and has it banished to the memory hole!!
I would disagree, he's trying to turn us into a European type socialist state not a Muslim state. Actually he's doing quite well in that regard.
Personally, I don't think we as a country that will ever fall under Sharia Law. We might have enclaves of Muslim controlled areas like major cities in under 50 years, but as a whole county, not going to happen.
Bambi problem is he was not raised under an authentic American experience. He was raised in a foreign country, lived in Hawaii as a youth, never learned the American heart.
I honestly think he looks at Islam like the secularist Marxist he is, a phony fake religion but he respects it just like a wayward Catholic respects the traditions he was raised in, but rejects the basic tenets.
Basically to him radical Islam is a pain in the ass and he will look for anyway to placate the mad Mohammedans anyway possible, toss Israel under the bus for starters, to keep them away form his true objective. Hope and Change otherwise known as American Social Marxism
Kristinn—are you a regular at Bigg? Kool!!
Saw that. Sickening. CBS Saturday Morning did the same. Chris Wragge needed knee pads.
he looks like Erkel in this photo...
The CLEANING crew for the WH had a more extensive check in to THEIR backgrounds than this usurper.
The CLEANING crew for the WH had a more extensive check in to THEIR backgrounds than this usurper.
You’re way out of line calling this woman a “lesbian” housekeeper. why? Because she has shorter hair?
She’s the only one breaking a sweat in the place these days - give her a break, she’s probably a career employee, - and we know people like that have to go through a LOT more scrutiny as to a background check than the scumbag Muslim-in-Charge.
How much you want to be zero’s a lousy tipper?
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