The media glare, the constant security appendage and the sheer production that has become a morning jog or a hankering for an ice cream cone – it’s been closing in on Barack Obama for some time.
Now the president-elect appears increasingly conscious of the confines of his new position, bristling at the routine demands of press coverage and beginning to chafe at boundaries that are only going to get smaller.
Obama even took the unusual step Friday morning of leaving behind the pool of reporters assigned to follow him, taking his daughters to a nearby water park without them. It was a breach of longstanding protocol between presidents (or presidents-elect) and the media, that a gaggle of reporters representing television, print and wire services is with his motorcade at all times.
Then when reporters finally caught up with Obama at Koko Marina Paradise Deli and he acknowledged them for one of few times since arriving in Hawaii last Saturday, he sounded resigned.
After ordering a tuna melt on 12-grain bread, Obama approached reporters and placed his hand on the shoulder of pool reporter Philip Rucker of The Washington Post, who was scribbling away in his notebook.
“You don’t really need to write all that down,” Obama said.
All presidents and would-be presidents struggle with “the bubble” – the security detail and the always-there reporters that impose barriers to any spontaneous interaction with the outside world.
But Obama seems to be struggling particularly hard, particularly early.
Boy, that’s gratitude for ya. The sycophantic leftwingnut MSM dutifully served their Obamessiah well during the campaign. They put halo-effect lighting behind him on magazine covers, felt ‘tingles up their legs’, followed him around, hung onto every word like a bunch of fawning rock star groupies, and this is the thanks they get?
Just think about how he’ll struggle with all of the scrutiny from us conservative bloggers regarding the baggage of corruption and radicalism he’s bringing to the Oval Office.
He’ll be ‘chaffing’ at more than just ‘boundaries’ for the next four years.