The Obama White House is tired of the cable clap-trap and the D.C. blinders. Today's Today's press gaggle on Air Force One officially put the teevee bobbleheads and the D.C. press corps on notice.
For the press, spokesperson Robert Gibbs offered this:
"we'll get to measure whose questions were better over the course of the day -- the voters of Elkhart or the reporters of Washington."
Keep in mind the context for this remark. He made it directly to the WH press corps on the plane to Elkhart. Well done, sir Gibbs!
As for the rest of cable t.v.? Well Obama started in last week:
So the American people are watching. They did not send us here to get bogged down with the same old delay, the same old distractions, the same talking points, the same cable chatter.
Gibbs expanded the theme today:
I think it's illuminating because it may not necessarily be where cable television is on all of this. But, you know, we're sort of used to that. We lost on cable television virtually every day last year. So, you know, there's a conventional wisdom to what's going on in America via Washington, and there's the reality of what's happening in America.
You remember those days, don't you? Obama is doomed because of this or that.
They weren't right then, and they aren't right this time.
But wait...there's more:
[We're talking] about bringing to Washington the viewpoint of what's happening in America. I think it's -- I think there's a myopic viewpoint in Washington. And I think Washington needs to understand what happens in Florida, and Indiana, and Michigan, and Ohio, and Pennsylvania -- states that have seen huge in unemployment; 598,000 jobs -- 20,000 -- Americans lost 20,000 jobs a day last month. That's what we're highlighting.
This is exactly the right tactic when you are working under 70% approval ratings. Get out and talk to the ones that 'brung ya'!
Update [2009-2-9 13:55:28 by MLDB]: From the comments I see that David Axelrod is chiming in as well. These choice bits from a press pool report earlier today
"One thing that we learned over two years," Axelrod added, "is that there's a whole different conversation in Washington than there is out here. If I had listened to the conversation in Washington during the campaign for president, I would have jumped off a building about a year and a half ago."
And
"Here's the point folks: We've got a good plan to deal with a deep crisis. The American people support it and we're urging everyone in Congress to catch up with the people on this one."
Oddly, the pool report makes no mention of the challenge Gibbs laid down re: good questions for the President. ;-P