You're Watching: Barack Obama. Up Next: Barack Obama

It's no secret that many of those displeased with the direction our country has taken since Barack Obama's swearing in eight months ago feel the federal government has gotten too big. As if the series of bailouts to banks and automakers weren't enough, the health care overhaul was yet another unacceptable encroachment of the government's long fingers into the pies many would rather keep private.

It's also no secret, but apparently hard to swallow, that America is not the privatized bastion of small government that tea party protesters say they are trying to defend. The government is widely involved, from the obvious (military, police, education), to the less obvious (firefighters, postal service, libraries), to the obvious but misunderstood -- Medicare.

Perhaps the anxiety comes not only from the fact that the government feels like it's everywhere, but actually looks like it's everywhere. The allegations, however baseless, of (gasp!) socialism and (what?) fascism, appear less outlandish when the president's face -- handsome as it is -- appears one day in the same position in the same White House room on five different talk shows. It's overkill. When the president appears on one Sunday morning talk show, everyone who is going to watch watches. It's also dangerous, as in it's four chances too many for Obama to slip up or get off-message. (Vice President Joe Biden can't do a single interview without a gaffe of some kind.) And it's eerie -- the uniformity, ubiquity, and repetition reeks of media management (and Rahm Emanuel).

Things also were strangely catty between the administration and Fox News. The network was snubbed by the White House and not granted an interview, conceivably because Fox refused to air Obama's health care speech before a joint session of Congress. The move is surprisingly small-minded for a hyper-rational administration that usually prides itself on taking the high road. The omission of Fox in the ranks of networks that Sunday morning dismantles the administration's one justification for playing host to so many interviews: to broaden the reach of the president's message. If that were really the case, Fox should have been a high priority as it offers lower- and middle-class right-leaning and independent viewers.

On a week that began with five nearly identical interviews before the unchanging backdrop of the Roosevelt Room, Obama went on to jokes in front of the fake New York skyline of Letterman, handshakes before the evenly spaced flags of Middle East peace talks, and the two speeches in the wooden chamber of the United Nations (to a climate change gathering and the General Assembly). He covered most of the important areas -- domestic and international, political and jovial -- in the biggest arenas -- the White House, U.N., and almost every major television network.

If Obama is everywhere, you wonder who he is cutting out. I seem to recall that other presidents had entire cabinets of officials at their disposal. I assume Obama's cabinet is busy, but it is frankly absent from the public discourse. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner once shared face time with the president, but even with the G20 meeting in Pittsburgh and Wall Street regulatory reform on the table, his name is not one we hear often. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius occasionally pops up in relation to the health care overhaul, but that topic is usually dominated by the president, Montana Sen. Max Baucus, and the Republicans. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton doesn't appear to have much to say, even as Obama wades into the unfamiliar waters of international politics. Defense Secretary Robert Gates is a notable exception to this rule of exclusion, but he just one of 14.

The effect of it all is a command of the media that makes me a little uneasy. Obama can claim to be above the news cycle, but in reality it appears that he has made himself the news cycle. To be fair, the administration has always taken advantage of the photogenic quality of the president. Since the campaign, Obama has been criticized as being a bedfellow of the swooning news reporters in whose eyes he could do no wrong. But this most recent spate of interviews and public appearances takes what was speculation of a connection between the administration and the media and makes it an open relationship.

Perhaps Obama does it out of necessity. When he dropped health care to stew for a summer in the hissing crock pot of our legislative branch, the result . . . well, it's still cooking. The summer also taught that when the administration leaves a vacancy in the hotel of public discourse, a vociferous opposition will be quick to fill it.

Perhaps Obama does it because he is so good at it. During his campaign, he was able to ride the swells of feverish media-hyped stories with enough exposure to stay relevant but above the bickering. And just when his polished sheen seems to crack under the pressure of a raving pastor or a failed health care bill, Obama delivers a brilliant speech that restores balance to the political world. There are few who could sit through five primetime interviews in one room in one day and not slip up with an off-message, off-color remark that would scuttle serious discourse.

Is this any way to govern? In the 21st century, young as it is, the answer is maybe. We live in a time when television news stations and opposition groups can rip the president's words from their context like the "heart of an Aztec sacrifice," chop them into five-second clips, and sprinkle on the spice of heavily partisan analysis for the followers' easy digestion and regurgitation. Through frequent television appearances, Obama can take control of the public discourse and release a message that is not warped by his opposition. This is one of the lessons of the summer health care saga, in which Obama and the Democrats lost control of the conversation to the death panel crowds.

If this is what it takes to get the health care overhaul passed, then I guess it is worth it. If the president continues to be charming and photogenic, then I will continue to watch him. But this is one of the few times when I can really understand the point of the view of the fuming protesters. This media management shows a reach of Obama and his personality cult into realms a president should perhaps not go. A big government is what we have and it is what we need, but it does have natural limits. Obama isn't there, but five talk shows in one day is a step in a dubious direction.