Candidate Obama vs. President Obama

One of the reasons President Obama was successful in his bid for the presidency in 2008 is because he was able to cultivate a relationship with the media. The media idolized Obama either because of his "rockstar" status or because he may have been the first leftwing African-American politician in recent years that had a decent shot at winning the White House. Even though Obama had only been in the U.S. Senate for four years and had virtually no other leadership experience other than serving in the Illinois State legislature and being a "community organizer," the media in a violation of journalistic integrity refused to cover any negative stories that could ruin the Obama campaign and instead propped up candidate Obama all the way to the White House. Obama's conversant and cool personality only excited the media even more. Having the media as your friend in a political campaign is a huge asset and that's why Obama went out of his way to be in regular contact with the media answering their questions in an "open door policy" because he knew that the media would never ask him any threatening questions. After becoming President, Obama continued his cozy relationship with the media and held more press conferences and sat down for more interviews than any other President in his first months in office. However, Obama's honeymoon period with the media may be coming to an end as the Washington Times is reporting that Obama has in recent days ducked questions from the WH press corps. If he had ducked questions during the campaign and the media actually reported on the ducked answers, Obama may not have become President. Perhaps, people would have started to question whether Obama had the experience to be President as they questioned Palin's ability. Thats's all fantasy at this point. But, the real question now is what effect Obama's change of heart in dealing with the the media will have on his political chances in the future. Will the media turn on Obsma? Without the media on his side, Obama may be vulnerable in 2010 and 2012. Maybe Obama will finally come to the realization that his free ride wouldn't last forever and even the "annoited one" will have to be held accountable. If he continues down this path of avoiding questions and not holding regular press conferences which he sought out to do when he became President, the media factor which created the "Obama phenomena" may become less significant. 

Candidate Obama vs. President Obama