<p>Sorry if anyone wants to bust my chops for posting something “negative” about Obama, but it is worth noting - and worth calling attention to the fact that this guy is so insulated & protected lest he tips his hand, makes a misstep or “misspeaks”. “Hang on just long enough to get elected, and then it won’t matter what a novice he is!”. We can’t let it work that way. Let Obama talk to reporters, the ones who will ask him tough questions, and let’s hear how he answers! When will Obama meet John McCain in some debates? Dump the teleprompter, and let everyone see who he really is!</p>
<p>The view expressed in the above article is so indicative of the type of campaign Obama is running. Do they think we’re idiots who will never catch on? Do they think most Americans will buy into the dog & pony show long enough for the “bait and switch”?</p>
<p>Surely, when enough of these types of things come out, Americans will open their eyes and vote for McCain - the REAL candidate!</p>
<p>BTW - I’ve seen a clip where it discusses & shows Obama just talking for a few minutes to American journalists on his plane while McCain talks to reporters on his plane at length. (Maybe McCain is too open & accommodating!). Anyway, with all 3 anchors traveling w/ Obama now, it will be interesting to see if we get any hard-hitting interviews as a result.</p>
<p>THE best thing to happen to John McCain was for the three network anchors to leave him in the dust this week while they chase Barack Obama on his global Lollapalooza tour. Were voters forced to actually focus on Mr. McCain’s response to our spiraling economic crisis at home, the prospect of his ascension to the Oval Office could set off a panic that would make the IndyMac Bank bust in Pasadena look as merry as the Rose Bowl.</p>
<p>“In a time of war,” Mr. McCain said last week, “the commander in chief doesn’t get a learning curve.” Fair enough, but he imparted this wisdom in a speech that was almost a year behind Mr. Obama in recognizing Afghanistan as the central front in the war against Al Qaeda. Given that it took the deadliest Taliban suicide bombing in Kabul since 9/11 to get Mr. McCain’s attention, you have to wonder if even General Custer’s learning curve was faster than his.</p>
<p>Honestly? If I were running for president (God help us all if I ever run for president…XD), I wouldn’t really worry about the press of a country where I’m not running for president either.</p>
<p>And, quite frankly, we’ve been electing candidates like McCain for as long as anyone can remember…war veterans, gray-haired men who have been “serving” for years…and look at the state the country is in.</p>
<p>IMHO, it’s time to do something different.</p>
<p>Lastly…I am VERY sick of the “Look what the other party/candidate is doing WRONG” game. Not just about Obama, but about everyone who runs.</p>
<p>Instead, tell us what YOU are doing RIGHT. Not what the OTHER guy is doing WRONG.</p>
<p>Whoever does this will earn major respect from me.</p>
<p>Apparently, Berlin is bracing itself for up to one million people coming to hear Obama. The German people will be able to make up their minds on their own.</p>
<p>Anyway, I don’t really see why Obama should grant more access to the foreign press. Germans cannot vote in US elections. Should McCain hold townhall forums in Berlin? That’s a thought.</p>
<p>Now, how about Maliki endorsing Obama’s timetable? Sure, he can’t vote in American elections, any more than Germans can, but his views are more important than that of a peeved correspondent?</p>
<p>The point is not so much that it’s a foreign correspondent, but that the article reflects a pattern of the candidate being insulated and not meeting w/ reporters who will ask tough questions. As I mentioned, I had seen previous reports about how he hardly ever comes to the back of his plane to talk to the reporters traveling w/ him while McCain is talking to reporters constanly, giving them practically unlimited access.</p>
<p>Now maybe this big tour of his will change things - who knows. It’s still interesting that the Bureau Chielf of a Foreign Paper chose to write this article just as Obama is traveling to his country. It raises curioisity to see if Obama will give any interviews to local reporters while he’s traveling, and makes me wonder what he’ll say if he does.</p>
So McCain’s an [idiot[/url</a>]; what else is new?</p>
<p>McCain is having a tough time getting media attention, so he’s hoping that if he talks to the press a lot something will make the evening news. Unfortunately, the only thing newsworthy in an off-the-cuff, back of the plane interview is some sort of gaffe – so the practice isn’t helping him. </p>
<p>Tuesday: Katie Couric, CBS News Anchor (Evening News: 5.4 million viewers)</p>
<p>Wednesday: Charlie Gibson, ABC anchor (World News Tonight: 8 million viewers)</p>
<p>Thursday: Brian Williams, NBC anchor ( Nightly News : 8 million viewers)</p>
<p>CNN and Fox News also have scheduled interviews. </p>
<p>So yeah, the guy from *Der Tagesspiegel<a href=“circulation%20150,000”>/I</a> is having a hard time getting attention. </p>
<p>But I assure you, that if your goal is to see Obama talking to the press, you will have no shortage of opportunities during the coming week.</p>
<p>And as to the so called “payback” to the New Yorker reporter: there was space for 40 journalists on the plane. 200 applied for seats. Do the math. (Hint: its like a college with a 20% admit rate… a “reach” - 4 out of 5 got turned down, and Lizza happened to be one of them).</p>
<p>I’m still wondering why focus on this particular issue. Yes, Obama is known not to speak to reporters as much as McCain. So what? Is this as important as what he actually said? The Lara Logan interview was pretty interesting. Why not focus on that? What Maliki had to say was pretty interesting. Why not discuss that?</p>
<p>You don’t like Obama. fine. But do so for non-trivial reasons. Let’s discuss real reasons for voting for one or another candidate.</p>
<p>Why did he want to speak in front of the Brandenburg gate then, if Germans can’t vote? If he has anything of substance to talk about US-German relations why shouldn’t he do it with the leaders of Germany, why include a lot of German citizens, these people can’t vote in US elections. Why shouldn’t he grant access to the German press so that they can explain to his German fans who will be attending his rally what his presidency mean from them?</p>
<p>Does anyone know which place Obama has chosen for his big speech in France? I hope they stop all the traffic for him at Arc de Triomphe.</p>
<p>^^^ I concur. What is the need unless you are doing it as a political maneuver. Meet with leaders, but that should be it. Are we to infer from the crowds that we should vote for him because he can get the crowds motivated?</p>
<p>As for media coverage my problem with Obama is he is too secretive and not open to reporters. Why does he keep them at arms length?</p>
<p>Why not speak if millions of people want to hear him? Isn’t he going to also speak to leaders of Germany? Does it have to be either/or? The fact is that Obama does not owe anything to the German press. Not being granted access is no cause to whine.</p>
<p>As for Ryan Lizza not being given space on the plane, well, him and hundreds of others, as calmom pointed out. There’s no reason for Obama to roll over for a guy who spinned the Chicago politics angle to a fare thee well. See for example, how the Alice Palmer story was told, as if Obama had done something wrong instead of Palmer padding her petition with invalid names.</p>
<p>Considering the number of interviews he’s giving on this trip, secretive is not the word I would use. Now, if he granted far more access, he’d be accused of pandering, or wooing the press and the press would be accused of pro-Obama bias (oops, already done).</p>
<p>So, let’s not trust the press, it’s biased in favor of Obama. But, hey, let’s criticize Obama for not talking more to the press and giving it more stuff to report on about Obama?</p>
<p>There’s no evidence that he is not giving reasonable access to the German “press” – but the journalist who wrote the rant about his calls not being returned essentially works for a small paper that’s the Berlin equivalent of The National Review. The problem isn’t that Obama “ignores” the foreign press, its that the small fry aren’t able to get access because they major media has more clout. </p>
<p>I am quite sure there will be coverage of Obama’s speech in the German media.</p>
<p>People are forgetting that Obama is still a Senator from Illinois, and he is not the President of the USA. Why should he be speaking to the German citizens who can’t vote in the US elections? </p>
<p>I think it is very inappropriate for McCain and Obama to hold rallies in foreign countries when they are not yet the President of the country. I think they should stick to the leaders of the countries until they become the President.</p>
<p>I think it is up to the German press to explain in detail the Obama speech to the citizens of Germany (I know a lot of Berliners speak English, but there a sizable number of Germans who don’t speak English). He should only be afraid if he does not have anything of substance to say.</p>
<p>Why is it important for Obama to speak in front of the a German crowd, but not important to grant interviews to the German press?</p>
<p>Hold rallies? German people want to hear Obama. That’s why they’re expected to turn out by the hundreds of thousands. </p>
<p>Why is it important to grant interviews to the German press? </p>
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<p>Exactly. The German press will be listening to the speech and reporting on it (in German) for the millions who will not be able to listen to him in person. That’s usually the case, isn’t it? They can comment on its susbtance to their heart’s content.</p>
<p>If anybody is to blame for the hoopla, it’s McCain who gave Obama a golden opportunity to make the most of this foreign trip by taunting him into making it, thus ensuring that the American press would make a big deal out if. As some commentators have mentioned, Obama has seized his opportunity, at time of little news (and just before the Olympics). If McCain had waited until later, Obama might not have been able to arrange such a complicated itinerary. </p>
<p>Obama the naive, Obama the inexperienced, seems to run a great campaign!</p>
He’s traveling on a plane with 40 journalists, and has scheduled at least 6 press interviews over the course of an 8-day trip. The interviews are with the top reps of major media outlets – presumably those people know how to frame a question. </p>
<p>The problem with you Obama bashers is you can’t make up your minds. You are either ticked off because the press lavishes too much attention on Obama, or else you are upset that he doesn’t give more interviews. </p>
<p>It’s pretty obvious to the rest of us that you focus on these trivialities because the reality is that the McCain campaign is in shambles and all he and his supporters can do is to come up with a new whining-point each day. </p>
<p>McCain and the GOP very stupidly, and short-sightedly, made Obama’s lack of recent visits to the mideast a big talking point for months … with the obvious and easily anticipated result that Obama would respond by taking a trip at the most optimum time for his campaign (after the primaries, before the convention, on an otherwise slow news week) – and of course the trip is going to get a huge amount of international attention, and result in a bunch of photo ops with world leaders and military leaders. </p>
<p>It’s was a stupid thing for the McCain campaign to do, because they focused a lot of attention on a nonexistent “problem” that was easy to fix. (Nonexistent because it doesn’t matter at all whether a presidential candidate personally visits the countries at war – Obama has and will receive appropriate briefings and the generals have testified before Congress). As Marite has pointed out, a smarter campaign tactic would have been to hold their fire now, and raise the issue in September and October when it would be too late for Obama to arrange overseas travel. Now, the tables will be turned – unless McCain scrambles and takes his own trip, Obama will have the advantage of having made a more recent trip to Iraq & Afghanistan than McCain, during which he has met directly with both the political leaders and the military leaders.</p>
<p>One has to wonder what might have happened if McCain had chosen to do a European trip like this. Chances are that they wouldn’t be planning events where hundreds of thousands of people could be accomodated. When he visited Ottawa last month to speak at a luncheon, our Conservative Prime Minister was otherwise engaged when a meeting was requested, and he made sure he was actually out of town during McCain’s visit. Instructions were given to members of his government who were not required to be at the luncheon in an official capacity, to not attend.</p>
<p>I think that whomever it was in the McCain campaign who was advocating pushing Obama’s buttons about visiting Afghanistan and Iraq is probably going to live to regret that strategy. Have they not been paying attention for the past year and a half? Do they not see that Obama is an object of fascination? They have presented Obama with the gift of a platform, an international one no less, and on a silver platter.</p>
<p>And yet another Obama press interview this week: "While in Iraq, Obama will be interviewed by Terry Moran for a special edition of “Nightline” (Same source as post #19 above)</p>