FUMBLE: ALL OBAMA, ALL THE TIME

I thought that maybe I was just being cranky in old age until I started to see more negative reaction this week to the latest 24-7 all-news trend – President Barack Obama nonstop. As CITY TV might say “Barack Obama Everywhere!” Obama’s “perpetual campaign” carries major risks. Think about it: the First Lady vegetable garden photo-ops, the ill-advised Jay Leno show appearance, the Oprah Winfrey “O” magazine cover, the town halls, the 60 Minutes appearances, the prime time press conferences, the YouTube postings; and on, and on, and on. As AdAge magazine pointed out: “the President, along with his wife, Michelle, have easily been on more magazine covers and done more TV and newspaper interviews than Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears combined.” There’s a communications lesson here for everyone. We all get our chance to communicate to the public. When that chance comes, we need to be prepared (media coached), well messaged and deliver with impact. But there’s a real danger out there for communicators who take advantage of their pulpit to be too “in your face” with the general public. People have their own lives and their own escapes. They need a break from you. Eventually. Otherwise your message becomes so muddled and oft-repeated that people begin to tune it out. Nothing stands out anymore. Obama seems to be missing this fact. The New York Times began an article on the President with: “Had enough yet?” Syndicated columnist Mike Lupica: “(He is) about to turn into President Twitter, telling all of us what he’s doing in real time, from pickup basketball to fixing the bonus mess at AIG.” Really, did the President have to do a photo opportunity making his NCAA March Madness picks? What’s next, a photo-op of Barack and the girls dialing their votes into the American Idol switchboard? Lupica nailed it when he said Obama “is about to become the first American President to suffer from overexposure before his first 100 days are up. He is trying way too hard…maybe his wife can be the one to tell him to dial it down a little, now that he got the gig.”