Peter Roff, Thomas Jefferson Street blog @ US News & World Report
...The president of the United States must jealously guard his image and his reputation, for he and the office are one, at least for as long as he holds it. And a vestige of that responsibility remains with them even after they leave. A person who has been leader of the free world has a responsibility to act like one, at least when they are in the public eye.
So imagine my shock, surprise, and amazement the other night when I happened to catch the president of the United States, the leader of the free world, Barack H. Obama, playing second fiddle to a second-rate comedian in a TV spot promoting a new late-night television talk show—and on basic cable no less.
The spot, which looked like it had been filmed inside the White House, was decidedly unfunny, which does not auger well for the talk show it was promoting. But more than that, having the president of the United States appear in a commercial, while still in office yet seemed, well, unseemly.
There are those in recent days who have written that Obama is, perhaps, overexposed, that he has become too accessible and, as a result, he is unable to persuade the nation that his vision for change in America is, after all, the right one. The idea that he has time to appear in commercials promoting new TV shows does not make him more presidential; it makes him smaller. It reduces the people's opinion of him and therefore reduces his effectiveness as a leader.
David Axelrod and company may have designed a campaign to win the White House that presented Obama as more like a "rock star" or "pop idol" rather than as a candidate for public office. But now they're in the big show, and they have to act like it. |