Why the Press Turned on Obama

Even when he was riding high, Obama provided surprisingly little access to his traveling press corps. When a reporter recently tried to ask Obama a question in a Scranton, Pa., diner -- drawing the response, "Why is it that, like, I can't just eat my waffle?" -- the interruption was in part because of the paucity of news conferences. Such incidents reinforce the growing media perception of Obama as aloof.

"He's always been wary of the press," says David Mendell, author of "Obama: From Promise to Power," and regards some of its members as "pure antagonists." Mendell was covering the 2004 Senate race in Illinois when Obama complained to him -- two months after the fact -- about the Chicago Tribune reporter's description of him as "a little verbose."

When Obama is pressed about what he deems to be side issues, as in last month's ABC debate, Mendell says, he takes on a "law professor air" of "why am I being asked all these ridiculous questions?"

Obama aides, for their part, are somewhat taken aback at the abrupt turn of events. They didn't mind the pundits declaring for weeks that Clinton had virtually no chance to win the nomination, but now believe the result is a huge imbalance in the level of media scrutiny. The staff is constantly fielding questions from reporters digging into Obama's background in places from Chicago to Honolulu.

"There's no shortage of effort to look at all three of them," says Brian Ross, ABC's chief investigative reporter, adding John McCain to the mix. "To say we've stopped working on her is not the case."

Candidates, of course, help shape their coverage by deciding how personal to get. In the spring of 1992, Bill and Hillary Clinton posed for the cover of People with 12-year-old Chelsea after strategists realized that many voters didn't know he had a daughter.

Obama, though, has exhibited a certain disdain for campaign rituals. He has, understandably, kept his young daughters out of the limelight, but has also bristled at sampling the local junk food or chatting with reporters on his Virgin Islands vacation.

That may be starting to change. Obama now talks about eating pot roast and Jell-O while growing up. He has twice played basketball before the cameras in recent days, once with the University of North Carolina Tar Heels, appearing more athletic than his ill-fated bowling excursion would suggest. The photo op produced headlines such as this one in the Raleigh News & Observer: "On the Court, Obama Is Center of Attention."

Despite the battering he has taken for what cable TV dubbed his "pastor disaster," Obama's staff has avoided the kind of stories about infighting that have plagued the Clinton camp, keeping its disagreements about strategy behind closed doors. And Obama has used the media to mount his defense, appearing last week on "Today" (with his wife, Michelle) and yesterday on "Meet the Press," even though it was obvious that the Wright controversy would dominate the interviews. Indeed, host Tim Russert pressed Obama about Wright for 20 minutes, asking whether he refused to denounce the pastor until it was politically expedient.

"We're running for president," says Obama spokesman Bill Burton. "We deserve scrutiny of our record and plans for the future, and Barack is getting it in large doses."

Footnote: On "This Week," ABC's George Stephanopoulos noted his past service in the Clinton White House, but Hillary Clinton turned that into a jab while being questioned on free trade: "Now, you remember this, because George did work in that '92 campaign, and George and I actually were against NAFTA. I'm talking about him in his previous life, before he was an objective journalist and didn't have opinions about such matters."

Capital Idea

CBS may be looking to add a little female star power in the expectation that Katie Couric will relinquish the anchor chair next year. The network is close to a deal to bring Lara Logan, its South African-born chief foreign correspondent, to Washington. Logan, who won an Emmy for her Iraq coverage last year, would specialize in diplomatic and foreign news.