President Obama is the only Democrat in the Beltway who knows how to work the media.

[backscatter712]

The fact that he’s President of the United States is a testament to that fact - the right-wing media, led by FOX News and personalities like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, was going out of their way to smear Obama with the Ayers crap, the Rev. Wright crap, and anything they could find to hurt him. On top of that is the media’s refusal to broadcast his speeches, while they played McCain’s speeches and Palin’s speeches from beginning to end. Despite all that, he got elected.

Over and over, just when you think he’s about to get steamrolled, he comes up with new ways to steal the spotlight, like the race speech. He’s always coming up with new catchphrases and soundbites for the media, and comes up with new ways to be the news, so the media’s forced to cover him even though they want to bury him.

On top of that, there’s his use of the Internet to spread his message and completely bypass the media and their gatekeepers.

We’re seeing the same thing today. His speech last night, and his comments today reflecting that speech, got him into the spotlight. His order to cap the pay of executives in banks that are getting TARP money also got him headlines. The media and the GOP thought they had Obama down for the count with the Daschle tax scandal, and they got a news cycle out of it, but then he got right back up, and now he’s turning up the heat on Congress and pushing them to get that stimulus bill done. What’s also helping President Obama that because he is the President, the media cannot ignore him. They can blow off Senators and Congressmen, and they can certainly blow off spokespeople and other designated media flaks, but they cannot blow off the President.

President Obama, so far, is the only Democrat in Washington that plays the media so well. The Democrats in the House and Senate don’t have the mojo. Harry Reid in particular doesn’t get it - he always gets soundbited by the media saying something like “I hope we get the votes today.” sounding like Droopy Dog and making him look like a bullied wuss.

President Obama and his media people need to throw a seminar for Democrats on Capitol Hill titled “How to Game the Media When They Hate You.”

[EraOfResponsibility]

1. Right on and kicked and rec'd n/m

[Sarah Ibarruri]

2. And we Democrats need to start inundating the media with e-mail and snail mail, and let them know

that the world is no longer as they thought it was.

[DevonRex]

4. I agree completely. We found out during the GE that we could make

a difference when we spoke up. We can't slack off now.

[butterfly77]

3. Do you know of any polls that..

we can vote on about the stimulus..

[Thrill]

5. The Democrats in Congress, learned nothing from the Republicans

They need to watch how the Republicans use to push Bush's agenda

[FrenchieCat]

6. Reid sounding like Droopy Dog

:rofl:

[Phx_Dem]

7. Damn straight. And when he gets tough, the media wets their

pants and squeels like little girls. To be fair, so do I.