In early February, Politico reported that the Obama campaign, hoping to rekindle enthusiasm among young voters, was "looking to revive the cool appeal." Then, suddenly, news stories started popping up about Obama's alleged coolness, in contrast to that drip Romney. A sampling:
• President Obama: The cool factor
• 'Cool' Obama Returns GOP Fire on Gas Prices
• Obama: The new King of Cool
• Barack Obama is cool. Mitt Romney is not. What does it mean for 2012?
• Campaigning for the 'Cool' Vote
• The Obama-Romney 'Cool Gap'
• Obama On Late Night Too Cool For Cool?
• Obama, Jimmy Fallon and the race for cool
Now, keep in mind that before the Obama campaign decided to push this "cool" PR talking point, news reports rarely mentioned it. And if they did, it was often in a negative way, as in "Should Cool Obama Warm Up?" or "Why Obama's Cool Comes Off as Cold."
Back then, the press could afford to gently chastise Obama for coming across as too aloof, particularly when the country was hurting economically while he was vacationing in Hawaii.
Now, when the stakes are higher, the mainstream press seems willing, if not eager, to focus on the real task at hand — helping Obama get re-elected. Nowhere was that more evident than in the coverage of Obama's idiotic appearance on the Jimmy Fallon show.
It's not that there aren't genuine angles that a truly independent press corps could pursue about Obama's latest PR gambit.
They might, for example, focus how this "cool" campaign seems to smack of desperation. As columnist Michael Barone notes on the next page, the president spends a lot of time trying to shore up his youth base. A confident Obama would be chasing swing voters.
Nor did the press bother to mention how the left-wing Fallon was last seen sandbagging Michele Bachmann when he had his band play "Lyin' Ass Bitch" as she walked on stage. Civility police, anyone?
There's also the more important question of whether Obama's Fallon appearance crossed the line on campaign finance laws. As Ben Shapiro notes on Breitbart's "Big Hollywood" site, letting Obama read a campaign speech on that show, without offering equal time to his political opponents, appears to violate the federal equal-time rule.
Ah, but who has time to worry about such trivialities when you're busy looking for new ways to advance Obama's I'm-cool-and-Romney's-not story line?
http://news.investors.com/article/609561/201204271858/mainstream-press-parrots-obama-pr-talking-points-.htm
• President Obama: The cool factor
• 'Cool' Obama Returns GOP Fire on Gas Prices
• Obama: The new King of Cool
• Barack Obama is cool. Mitt Romney is not. What does it mean for 2012?
• Campaigning for the 'Cool' Vote
• The Obama-Romney 'Cool Gap'
• The Ned Flanders of Politics: Romney Isn't Cool
• Obama, Jimmy Fallon and the race for cool
Now, keep in mind that before the Obama campaign decided to push this "cool" PR talking point, news reports rarely mentioned it. And if they did, it was often in a negative way, as in "Should Cool Obama Warm Up?" or "Why Obama's Cool Comes Off as Cold."
Back then, the press could afford to gently chastise Obama for coming across as too aloof, particularly when the country was hurting economically while he was vacationing in Hawaii.
Now, when the stakes are higher, the mainstream press seems willing, if not eager, to focus on the real task at hand — helping Obama get re-elected. Nowhere was that more evident than in the coverage of Obama's idiotic appearance on the Jimmy Fallon show.
It's not that there aren't genuine angles that a truly independent press corps could pursue about Obama's latest PR gambit.
They might, for example, focus how this "cool" campaign seems to smack of desperation. As columnist Michael Barone notes on the next page, the president spends a lot of time trying to shore up his youth base. A confident Obama would be chasing swing voters.
Nor did the press bother to mention how the left-wing Fallon was last seen sandbagging Michele Bachmann when he had his band play "Lyin' Ass Bitch" as she walked on stage. Civility police, anyone?
There's also the more important question of whether Obama's Fallon appearance crossed the line on campaign finance laws. As Ben Shapiro notes on Breitbart's "Big Hollywood" site, letting Obama read a campaign speech on that show, without offering equal time to his political opponents, appears to violate the federal equal-time rule.
Ah, but who has time to worry about such trivialities when you're busy looking for new ways to advance Obama's I'm-cool-and-Romney's-not story line?
http://news.investors.com/article/609561/201204271858/mainstream-press-parrots-obama-pr-talking-points-.htm
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