Bad Megaphone
History may bear out what will be described as one of the greatest dichotomous PR machines ever built. Obama rode to success as a great orator with very little political baggage and a depth of self-described political and intellectual curiosity. As an executive at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. the machine appears to have ran out of gas and quit on the side of the road. In an era where a fast-moving media cycle requires a frequent, adept and quickly management - the very ability that powered him past his rivals in the primaries and general election has failed to tell a consistent story. One does not suggest that campaigning is the same as governance, acknowledging the balancing act that is driving one’s own narrative in addition to responding to uncontrollable events.

That said, a Newsweek magazine article might have posed the disparity best in a January 2010 article that compared the legislative successes of Obama to that of the legendary LBJ's. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?stor... http://www.newsweek.com/2010/01/14/a-modern-day-l...

Yet, for the accomplishments, there is a growing legion of critics on both sides of the aisle that are not met with the same kind of repetitive blowing of the megaphone or "bully pulpit" that could be heard. For whatever reason, the communication apparatus is not engaged or operating at full capacity telling the story over and over as would have been the case in a Reagan White House. A recent article in the LA Times said, "If Ronald Reagan was the classic Teflon president, Barack Obama is made of Velcro." http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la...

Finally, if we subscribe to the idea that "perception is reality." The reality - despite the spate of bad luck events from the economy to oil spills and more...the remedy is repetitively outlining the vision and the successes to an increasingly ill-informed, sound-bite-driven pounding of the drums heard from a diverse opposition. Inexplicably, these intelligent, well-meaning bureaucrats haven't embraced the PR engine to tout their story. It will likely be their undoing, soon.