The disturbing aspect of Obama\u2019s effort to create his new political alignment is that building it requires him to send rather different messages to its component parts. Playing to several audiences at once can lead to awkward moments.<\/p>\n
Last Thursday afternoon, for example, the White House invited in journalists, mostly opinion writers, to sell them on the substance of the president\u2019s big speech on Guantanamo and the treatment of detainees.<\/p>\n
Unbeknown to the writers until afterward, they had been divided into two groups, one more centrist with a sprinkling of moderate conservatives, the other more liberal. (I was in the liberal group.) The president made an unscheduled appearance at each briefing. As is his way, he charmed both groups.<\/p>\n
\nThe idea, as far as I can determine, was to sell the liberal group on those aspects of Obama\u2019s plan that are a break from George W. Bush\u2019s policies, and to sell the centrist group on the toughness of the president\u2019s approach and the fact that it squares with Bush\u2019s more moderate moves later in his second term.\n
What struck me is how easy it was to classify the journalists in their political opinions and how easy it was for the President to manipulate them, telling each side what they wanted to hear. <\/p><\/div>\n<\/blockquote><\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
E.J. Dionne tells an interesting anecdote in a column about how President Obama is creating a new \u201ccenter left\u201d political establishment, including everyone but right wingers: The disturbing aspect of Obama\u2019s effort to create his new political alignment is that building it requires him to send rather different messages to its component parts. Playing to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\n
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