“I think just think it comes down to their overall strategy, which is to be low risk, to play it safe. They feel like they’re ahead and there’s no need to put the president in a position where he makes a mistake,” said former George W. Bush spokesman Trent Duffy, a founding partner of public affairs group HDMK. “They feel like they’ve got it won, and Romney’s got to do something dramatic.”…
“You have a category of voter that is watching ‘Entertainment Tonight’ and reading People that are not exposed to the cable news shows, are not high-intensity New York Times or POLITICO readers,” Steve Schmidt, chief strategist on McCain’s 2008 campaign, told POLITICO. “The one thing the Obama camp knows for sure, while there’s a lot of griping among the press, the public doesn’t care.”…
ABC News chief White House correspondent Jake Tapper made his frustrations with the White House known in a terse blog post hammering home how much time has elapsed since the president’s last presser.
“I know that defenders of the president will say the White House press corps is just being whiny. But the bottom line is presidents set precedents,” Tapper told POLITICO. “So President Romney, or Ryan, or whomever the next Republican president will be, will be able to use President Obama as a benchmark. And today’s defenders of today’s president may not find tomorrow’s president’s avoidance of questions not about chili or fave songs as acceptable.”
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