In his Chicago Tribune column, Clarence Page challenges the latest media depiction of President Barack Obama as the kind of liberal who loves humanity but hates people. He says the unfavorable narrative could prove disastrous in the upcoming election year.
News media depict presidencies as long-running soap operas. The story doesn't end, but it goes through changes.
In this, President Barack Obama's autumn of discontent, a new and potentially disastrous media narrative is emerging about him: He's the kind of liberal who loves humanity but hates people.
Such was the subtext of a stinging full-page essay that has political junkies all abuzz. Headlined "The loner president," the essay by White House correspondent Scott Wilson in Sunday's Washington Post says Obama has a "people problem."
"This president endures with little joy the small talk and back-slapping of retail politics, rarely spends more than a few minutes on a rope line, refuses to coddle even his biggest donors," Wilson observes. "His relationship with Democrats on Capitol Hill is frosty, to be generous. Personal lobbying on behalf of legislation? He prefers to leave that to Vice President (Joe) Biden, an old-school political charmer."
Of course, it is fair to ask: Is that a bad thing?
Read Clarence Page's complete column at the Chicago Tribune.