Obama Appeared on Several Shows on Sunday

In only nine months in the White House, President Obama has already given more one-on-one interviews to the press than Presidents Bush and Clinton combined.

President Obama became the first President in history to appear on five talk shows in one day – one at 9am, two at 10am and two more at 10.30am. He achieved this not by racing between studios, but by summoning five anchors and their crews to the West Wing on Friday afternoon because -as one veteran White House speechwriter put it- he knew they would say yes.

He repeated the same ideas in one form or another to all five channels: ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and Univision . Paradoxically, Fox News Channel, the most viewed network channel for news in the United States, was completely ignored by the White House and President Obama.

Obama had already given six big set-piece speeches in the ten days since the official end of summer. Some strategists are already speaking of over-exposure in the media. Peggy Noonan, author and Republican speechwriter, said during the multi-channel analysis of the multi-channel onslaught.

“He’s been on everything except the Food Channel,” said Senator Lindsey Graham, another influential Republican.

One of the television channels was the Latino Univision channel. His words were translated into Spanish covering some of the subjects that currently dominate the presidency: healthcare, Afghanistan and the race issue.

Obama’s fifth Sunday interview was with Univision´s Jorge Ramos. They talked about health care, immigrants, Cuba and this section about Honduras:

Ramos asked: “Y finalmente sobre Honduras. ¿Va usted a reconocer al ganador de las elecciones presidenciales en Honduras este noviembre? [And finally on Honduras. Will you recognize the winner of the presidential elections in Honduras this November?]”

Obama responded: “Bueno, yo lo que quisiera ver es a las partes respaldar la propuesta de Arias. Yo creo que esto haría que las elecciones próximas serían mucho más legítimas [Well, what I want to see is for the parties to support the proposal of [Costa Rican President] Arias. I believe that this would make the next elections much more legitimate.]”

In all five interviews, Obama insisted that the $856 billion health insurance reform package that he endorsed last week in Congress would not mean higher taxes for the middle class.

The President also indicated that he was not interested in a US presence in Afghanistan for its own sake.

Obama insisted that the current economy is unacceptable and working towards a deficit-neutral plan is a must.

Obama also indicated that his prime goals start with increasing insurance coverage. He also repeated that achieving insurance reforms is necessary. As he already did in the past days, he insisted on the point that change is always hard and rife with controversy.

One of the correspondents for The Atlantic Magazine defined this media blitz as watching “Obamavision” on Sunday Morning. If the five morning shows on Sunday were not enough, last night President Obama also became the first sitting President to appear on The Late Show with David Letterman.

On Tuesday, debate on health care is set to begin in the Senate Finance Committee, the last of five congressional panels required to pass a reform bill before it reaches a vote on the House or Senate floor.

The Americano / Agencies

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