If It's Sunday, It Must Be Obama

It's not quite the full Ginsburg, but Barack Obama will dominate the news on Sunday, and in more than one language.

The president's talk show blitz sent me to Google, where I found pieces about the danger of overexposure dating back to March.

Clearly, the White House has made its choice. Obama will hit the airwaves whenever he can, as often as he can, in as many formats as he can, any time he's got something to sell. Which is pretty much all the time.

Can I just take a moment to recall all the people who wrote pre-inaugural stories about how Obama was going to use his Web savvy to bypass the mainstream media? The guy lives in the MSM. I'm glad I deflected one editor's suggestion that I write a similar piece.

I raised the question a few months back whether Obama was diluting his impact by constantly popping up on the tube. He'd already done ESPN, Leno, the network anchors, "60 Minutes" and a slew of other programs. Then there was NBC's day in the life, ABC's town hall forum, the four prime-time news conferences, the comedy bits for Conan and Colbert, and on and on.

Now, after the health care address to Congress and sitdowns with Steve Kroft of "60 Minutes" and CNBC's John Harwood, Obama's schedule includes "Meet the Press," "Face the Nation," "This Week," "State of the Union" and a Univision show -- everything but "Fox News Sunday." And in case that doesn't provide enough pop, he'll do Letterman on Monday.

Will Obama wear out his welcome? Will viewers tire of his message? Would it be better to do one Sunday show every week than four major networks on the same day?

The White House view is that in a fragmented media universe, the president needs to be out there reaching difference audiences in different venues. Obviously Letterman reaches a different crowd than Bob Schieffer on the same network.

But here's the wrinkle. Obama may want to drive a message on Sunday about health care reform and how the economy is turning around. The hosts, however, can ask about whatever they want, from Jimmy Carter saying many of the president's critics are racists to Obama calling Kanye West a jackass. One of those other subjects could generate the headlines. But that is the price of admission.

ABC quotes Republican strategist Kevin Madden as saying: "I think the worry is it's gone beyond overexposure and now we have what I would call the 'Obama omnipresence.' You almost can't escape this president. It goes beyond just cable news and it goes into whether or not you're flipping on ESPN and you're seeing him talk about basketball or you turn on the Lifetime channel and you hear what Michelle Obama is wearing this week. And I think that begins to wear on a lot of people."

The polls show that most people like Obama. His challenge is to get them to have more confidence in his policies.

Time's James Poniewozik questions the value of All Obama All The Time: