Wednesday, March 25, 2009

O: Too Happy, Too Visible

From Tina Brown at The Daily Beast:
Obama is the only person walking around with a big smile on his face. That onset of wild laughter on 60 Minutes about how humorous it is that no one in America, I mean no one, wants a bailout for the auto companies was one of the more surreal presidential performances lately. Why has Obama suddenly turned into the Paris Hilton of teachable moments? We realize he’s just trying to shore up his poll ratings so he can distance himself from Pelosi’s pitchfork mob, but a 60 Minutes sitdown right after the Leno armchair session on the preceding Thursday seemed—for him—strangely tone-deaf to the risk of overexposure. . . .
In this current crisis, I’m not in the mood for an exclusive peek at Sasha and Malia’s new swingset on the grounds of the White House. And it’s time the president dropped his gosh-this-is-fun-and-weird riff about the perks of being the most powerful man in the world. He talked about being wary of the presidential bubble, but it feels like he’s already trapped in there. Couldn’t he have mustered a bit more passion on 60 Minutes than that mild repudiation of the near-endorsement he gave last week to the House’s preposterous vote for a punitive tax response on AIG bonuses, after he himself had said it was OK?

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