"End of the Affair" from The New Republic reports that the love affair between Senator Barack Obama and the mainstream media press may be at least fraying a bit - if not in fact cooling considerably.
Apparently after the last Democratic pre-presumptive nominee Hillary Clinton kept herself away from the press during her hey day, Barack Obama was only too eager to fill the void with campaign acess. But today, he, with the aid of non-communications director Robert Gibbs are giving the press short shrift and living up to every cliche applied to President Bush's White House - secretive, arrogant, non-sensitive to the press's ego stroking needs.
"Obama's Ego Trip" from City Journal
So much for "Obama Love." That's the title of John McCain's new web ad, which strings together clips of cable news pundits gushing over Obama like besotted teens. This romance has been a prominent story line of Obama's entire campaign, and clearly elements of it are true: "I felt this thrill going up my leg," Chris Matthews crows in one clip flagged in the ad. But scratch the surface, and you'll find a lot of mixed feelings behind the Obama "love." Reporters are grumbling more and more that the campaign is acting like the Prom Queen. They gripe that it is "arrogant" and "control[ling]," and the campaign's own belief that Obama is poised to make history isn't endearing, either. The press certainly helped Obama get so far so fast; the question is, how far can he get if his campaign alienates them?
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