Obama Administration’s New PR Move

Contrary to popular belief, President Barack Obama is not perfect, nor has his administration acted flawlessly in these opening months. His insensitive commentary about the Special Olympics on Jay Leno’s show (which former President George W. Bush would have been crucified for, by the way) aside, there’s still much to question about the young administration.

From this past fall’s campaign up until last Sunday, Obama and his team maintained that the fundamentals of our economy were “weak”. Obama even chastised Sen. John McCain for making statements to the contrary, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average floated between 8,000 and 10,000. Now, just months later, with the market at a slight uptick of 7,200+, these same fundamentals are “strong”. This according to Obama economic adviser Christina Romer.

What caused this sudden turnaround in opinion? Perhaps nothing but a calculated public relations tactic.

With more and more people viewing the state of the nation and its economy in a downward spiral, and the president’s approval rating becoming stagnant of late, it would seem the administration has decided to act to stop the bleeding. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell would think so, and sees all of it to be part of a bigger plan.

“They’re taking advantage of a crisis in order to do things that have nothing to do with getting us into the crisis in the first place,” McConnell said recently.

Of course, he would be referring to the oversized and wasteful bill passed last month, supposedly to stimulate our faltering economy. Hundreds of billions of dollars handed out to pork projects and special interest groups sure don’t seem to fit the bill, so to speak, when it comes to eliminating wasteful spending and the national debt. Specifically, a $300 million portion of the plan goes to fund golf carts. Golf carts? I rest my case.

Without a true measurement of the effectiveness of the bill available for months, Obama and his advisers are getting ahead of the results, setting the expectations and adjusting public perception to success, regardless of its actual occurrence. The administration is obviously skilled at the public relations function of politics, and these actions, though effective from a PR standpoint, are not exactly admirable for an administration which prides itself on being above such behavior.

Change? It’s here, but is it positive? Obama knows what the country wants to hear, and it seems that he and his team are more than willing to give it to them, regardless of its accuracy.

~ John Cassillo