Media Darling Barack Obama Bristles at Media Spotlight

President-elect Barack Obama, arguably the recipient of the least critical media coverage of any candidate for president in U.S. history, has suddenly become less than enamored of the press coverage he and his family are receiving as they vacation in Hawaii. Late last week, Obama left the press gaggle behind when he took his daughters to a water park, breaking with the protocol that representatives of the media travel with the president or president-elect at all times. When the press eventually caught up with the Obamas, the president-elect chided a Washington Post pool reporter for writing down his sandwich order at a local deli.

Obama has displayed a frustration with the media before. During the campaign, seemed surprised and annoyed when the press tried to take pictures of the candidate escorting his daguters for a little trick-or-treating on Halloween. And earlier on his Hawaii vacation, Obama reportedly tried to dissuade photographers from taking politically sensitive pictures of him golfing at a luxury resort on Oahu by offering to by them a round of beers in the clubhouse. None of the press took him up on the diversion tactic.

If President-elect Obama thinks the media glare of the campaign and the post-election period are too bright, what will he think when he takes office? Once Obama is actually responsible for governing, the media, at least the more conservative outlets, will parse his every utterance and analyze his every movement for clues to his policy positions. Obama may yearn for the quieter family life he enjoyed when he was a relatively obscure State Senator from Illinois. But those days ended theday he decided to run for president. A politician who lived by the media adulation sword, as Obama certainly did, cannot now complain that his press coverage is too intrusive. The media should refrain from targeting or reporting on the Obama children, of course. But the most powerful man in the world, and his wife, must be covered around the clock by the press. That is part and parcel of the transparency President-elect Obama espouses for others. He should be willing to accept it for himself.