Obama gets in the way of bully pulpit

Barack Obama’s trip to Middle East war zones has significantly increased media pressure on the White House to get involved in the 2008 presidential campaign, leaving President Bush and his aides walking a fine line between their stated goal to stay out of the race and thinly veiled policy disagreements with the Democratic candidate.

At Tuesday’s White House press briefing, eight of 32 questions posed to press secretary Dana Perino specifically mentioned Obama by name or as “senator” and several more were asked in clear reference to Obama’s trips to Afghanistan and Iraq.

{mosads}Overall, Obama was referred to by reporters or Perino 18 times. By contrast, Bush or “the president” was mentioned 40 times. Obama’s Republican rival, Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), was mentioned twice, both times by Perino.

Perino acknowledged by e-mail later Tuesday that a lot of the questions coming from the White House press corps are a result of Obama’s trip abroad.

Bush said in a news conference last week, where he was asked about the Illinois senator twice, that he is “loath” to comment on the campaign, but he and his aides have responded to questions about Obama while at the same time saying they will not comment on Obama.

In last week’s news conference, the president was asked what advice he would give to Obama ahead of his overseas trip.

“I would ask him to listen carefully to [Ambassador] Ryan Crocker and Gen. [David] Petraeus,” Bush said. It wasn’t until the second question about Obama that Bush said he was “loath to respond to a particular presidential candidate, and so I will try not to.”

Despite the best efforts of both Bush and Perino to stay above the fray, at least from the podium, their involvement has been unavoidable as Obama’s stops have been to countries that constitute one of the primary debates of the presidential campaign as well as the center of Bush’s controversial foreign policy.

Perino was asked several times Tuesday if Obama’s visit to Iraq and the dust-up over Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s comments on a U.S. troop withdrawal timeline have been a distraction from Bush’s efforts in the region.

“I’m not going to comment on Sen. Obama’s trip, nor his press conference, but I can assure you that President Bush, the commander in chief, does not allow anything to distract him from his mission to make sure that we win in Iraq,” Perino said.

Moments later, Perino was asked about Maliki and Obama and whether the president has gotten “sort of a short shrift from the Iraqis,” leaving Perino to note that Obama “is a United States senator as well — he’s not just a Democratic candidate.”

Following that, Perino made another effort to make clear that she was not commenting on Obama’s widely publicized trip, but her initial response could well have come from McCain headquarters or the Republican National Committee (RNC).

“I think we don’t know what Sen. Obama’s plan for Iraq is,” Perino said. “I am the spokesperson for President Bush; I follow his policies, I work hard for him. I’m not here to speak for Sen. Obama.”

All of this increased media attention comes as a clearly exasperated McCain campaign is accusing the media of having a “love affair” with Obama, as the Illinois senator is dominating headlines and newscasts as he travels the Middle East and Europe with a large press contingent that includes all three network news anchors.

The McCain campaign circulated an e-mail to supporters that contains a link to two videos that feature a compilation of high-profile media personalities like MSNBC’s Chris Matthews raving about Obama. The videos contain different love songs as backdrops.

Viewers are encouraged to vote for which video they prefer, and are invited to contribute financially to the campaign.

“The media is in love with Barack Obama,” the e-mail says. “If it wasn’t so serious, it would be funny.”