From town halls to 60 Minutes to Jay Leno and YouTube, President Obama seems to be everywhere. What do you make of White House communications strategy so far?
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The Obama folks must feel like 100 days equals 100 hours. The inauguration was the wedding, the next day a honeymoon, and then they woke up with five teenage children. The new measure should be 100 weeks because the 2010 midterm is the first time a real verdict gets rendered. But given the challenges, the complexities, and the utter chaos of what we now call the "traditional" (dying?) media, the Obama communications team gets credit in my book for multitasking. They are keeping multiple plot lines alive and interesting to a variety of audiences and they are all much more patient than the conventional pundits in Washington.
The first 100 days of any administration is not a good benchmark to determine success or failure, but they can set a tone for what's to come. From a communications standpoint, I think the Administration has had some hits, some strikes, a few fouls balls, and a homerun or two.
Our very popular new president is everywhere you look - on magazine covers, billboards, t-shirts, cable news channels, etc. I applaud them for milking it for all it's worth now, as it's unlikely to last forever -- he himself is still wildly popular, but his policy proposals are much less so. They've tried some new tactics. Branching out to do comedy shows is, well...fine, but the chance you take is that there will be a flub -- like making fun of the Special Olympics on the Leno show. But the Obama team handled that situation well with a quick apology in a phone call from the President from aboard AF1.
The partisan attacks on Rush Limbaugh and the former Vice President were unbecoming, especially because they came from the White House. That should be left to the Democrats' party headquarters. The constant swipes at President Bush are unstatesmanlike and unlike anything we've seen in recent times. All of that has undercut the message our new President made about bringing people together and cutting out partisan rhetoric, and that's reflected in the polls showing GOP support for the new president has dropped 16 points since January.
The communications team had its hands full with the early stumbles on nominations, the doling out of waivers to get out from under the "no lobbyists" rule, and the signing of an $800B stimulus bill laden with earmarks and then coming out that same day with an anti-earmark policy.
The Obama team has also had some self-inflicted wounds and found itself dealing with stories for multiple days -- such as what the White House knew and when it knew it about the AIG bonuses, whether the President bowed to the King of Saudi Arabia, and now on interrogation memos. They've opened a pandora's box with the selective release of the interrogations memos, and unfortunately, I think that will grow to be much more than just a communications problem. For all the talk about wanting to look forward, they seem to be stuck talking about the past.
From the East Wing, the First Lady's communications team has hit a few homeruns -- she has been introduced to America and the world as a gracious and fun woman of tremendous confidence and smarts. So far they have been able to strike the right balance for their daughters as well, providing for their relative privacy but satisfying some of the curiosity with photos from the new swing set (why oh why could it not have been painted white to match the house?).
Plus, they milked that dog story for all it was worth -- bravo!
At 100 days we're just finishing the first inning and the Obama Administration is still up at bat. The GOP is in the bull pen warming up. This is going to be a long game.
Any way you slice it, President Obama’s communications strategy in the First 100 Days has been hugely successful. More than 60 percent of Americans agree the president is doing a good job, and for the first time in nearly five years, more of us think the country is on the right track than on the wrong track. Why?
First, the president has consistently delivered the kind of bold change he promised during the campaign. More than working to solve the economic crisis, which might
be enough, he's simultaneously taking on health care, energy and education.
Second, the White House continuously plays offense. By making news nearly every day on issues from Afghanistan and Cuba, to stem cells and family pets, they force the media to cover their priorities.
Third, they focus on the long term. The president isn’t afraid to make controversial decisions (see Torture Memos) for fear of losing the news cycle; he has confidence that good, thoughtful decisions are the basis of a successful communications strategy over time.
Fourth, they’re not stuck in Washington, either literally or figuratively. Within weeks of being sworn in, the president realized he needed to get out of town -- and move the conversation beyond the judgment of Washington’s chattering class.
And finally, they’ve used a mix of traditional and non-traditional media to communicate their message, a strategy that proved successful during the campaign. They understand that it’s not an either-or, but an all of the above, that “Meet the Press” and Twitter are both important.
That said, they haven’t done everything right. Perhaps the biggest weakness they face is that President Obama himself is asked to do too much. Day after day, he’s making the announcements, framing the arguments, debating the critics. I don’t care how good your star pitcher is, you can’t send him to the mound in every game.