Team Obama Is Courting Everybody But the Press

[ProSense]

Team Obama Is Courting Everybody But the Press

By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, January 28, 2008; Page C01

GREENVILLE, S.C. -- When reporters filed onto Barack Obama's press plane after his acrimonious debate with Hillary Rodham Clinton last week, one thing was noticeably missing amid the wine and snacks on the Boeing 737.

There was no high-level campaign spinner to argue that Obama had gotten the better of the exchanges or that the verbal fisticuffs were part of some precisely calculated strategy. On the press bus the next day, mid-level aides dealt with travel logistics but made no attempt to shape the coverage.

In an age of all-out political warfare, the Obama campaign is a bit of an odd duck: It is not obsessed with winning each news cycle. The Illinois senator remains a remote figure to those covering him, and his team, while competent and professional, makes only spotty attempts to drive its preferred story lines in the press.

"There is no charm offensive from the candidate toward the press corps," says Newsweek correspondent Richard Wolffe. "The contact is limited. . . . They see the national media more as a logistical problem than a channel for getting stuff out."

more

On edit, Hillary's team schmoozes and loses:



Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton,
D-N.Y., and her husband, former President Bill Clinton chat
with the media on the press plane after a campaign rally in
St. Louis, Mo. Saturday, Jan. 19, 2008.
(AP Photo/Elise Amendola)




Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton
chats with the media on the press plane before taking
off from Santa Barbara, Calif. Thursday, Jan. 17, 2008.
(AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

Clinton Unveils "Hill-Force One"

Here is why complaining about media unfairness toward Hillary is ludicrous

[rodeodance]

1. Why would he court the press--He gets a free pass anyway

[ProSense]

2. Whine? n/t

[journalist3072]

7. Exactly...and they know it. I forget who it was...but they admitted that

they did not question Obama when, during that debate, he gave almost the exact same response about driver's licenses for illegals, that Sen. Clinton did.

I think it was someone from the MSNBC line-up...but they admitted Obama has been innoculated from the "can't take a clear position" meme, and that's why he got a free pass for his waffling answer on driver's licenses for illegals...the same response Clinton was slammed for in an earlier debate.

[Bluebear]

10. You said it.

[krabigirl]

16. good one

[DURHAM D]

3. Why should Obama court the press -

he does not need to. David Axelrod has it all covered -he is his chief strategist, message manager and media guy.

[babylonsister]

4. More smart politics. The great stuff we hear isn't being fed to the media.

They're coming to their own conclusions! :thumbsup:

[papau]

5. LOL - the press has knee pads on for Obama - why bother to "court them"?

[AX10]

6. True.

:puke:

[snooper2]

8. Sure...

Like they haven't been pimpin Hillary INC. for the past year, + all corporate Repug whores talking up their #1 Dem on talk radio...

[papau]

11. they haven't been pimpin Hillary - just setting her up for the left to reject her w/o saying its sex

[ProSense]

9. No, it's just that they're better at it than Hillary's guy, Mark "Blackwater" Penn. n/t

[Sapphocrat]

12. Courting Everybody But Us Lowly Homos.

But, hey, fuck us sideways, right? If we don't actually lose the GE for the Dems, then it's gonna be our fault the Dems didn't win by enough. Or somethin' like that there.

(Don't ask me to explain it -- All I know is: I'm just one of them sinnin' homersexshuls everybody can blame everything on, and y'all are gonna be madder'n a cat in a roomful of rocking chairs no matter what happens come November. Golly, no wonder nobody courts us!)

P.S. I LOVE being on everybody's ignore list -- nobody even speaks to me anymore, let alone challenges me! Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! :woohoo:

[Bluebear]

13. You'll always have me.

Uppity homos of the board, unite!

[Sapphocrat]

15. And you'll always have me, BB

w00t w00t w00t! uppity homos! :loveya:

[ProSense]

14. Obama doesn't use the word "Homos," but here

read!

[Sapphocrat]

17. Been there, read it.

Means nada, zilch, zip (see also: "Actions Speak Louder Than Words").

And where did I ever say Obi-Wan-Bama ever used the word "homos"? :shrug:

But, thanks, Pro-S, for not putting me on ignore (yet)! Your validation of my existence give me warm fuzzies, all over, no matter how much you might like to throttle me in my sleep. :hi:

[NMMNG]

18. Hell, he doesn't need us.

He's got the evangelicals. :shrug:

[Sapphocrat]

19. That's what they tell me!

Why, just the other day, somebody, right on this very board, wrote: "Black evangelicals are more important to the party than gays."

I feel so much better now that I know my place in the world, I think I'll jam a large carving knife through my neck! I have been saved! Halle-fucking-lujah!

[NMMNG]

20. Your place is where it has always been

Now get under there and like it. :sarcasm:

[Sapphocrat]

21. Under the bus? Only under the bus?

Oh, thank you for clarifying that! I thought my place was at the bottom of the shitheap, where those who've climbed to the top (with their bootprints ground into my neck to prove it) can "trickle down" upon my poor little head.