The Bloom, it is off the rose:
The former state senator may, in fact, be slaving away on 18-hour policy days. But much of that is closed out of sight. So the public is left to focus on Obama's frequent vacations, golf outings, celebrity gatherings and proclivity to give a speech at the first whiff of trouble.
This was a point that I made during the Bush years, that 90% of what the President does happens away from a TV camera. So I don't attack Obama on "image" stuff. Things like Air Force One buzzing Lower Manhattan or Obama's devotion to his teleprompter look bad but are only tangentially involved with the duties of the executive. However:
It's one thing to launch a war against Libya while packing up your wife, daughters, mother-in-law and her friend to tour South America.
It's another to wait nine whole days to bother explaining the unexpected combat to a puzzled nation. Or nearly two months to arrange an Oval Office address on the country's worst environmental disaster ever.
More to the point, these things even getting a mention in the LA Times means that the same people who thought Bush an imbecile based on how he seemed on TV are now wondering about Obama's basic political competence based on the same thing. That means something.
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