President Obama's "Honeymoon" Phase Over?

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In The Media

President Obama's "Honeymoon" Phase Over?

After enjoying months of good press coverage, President Obama’s honeymoon finally came to an end in July of 2009. As Obama now faces a number of tough policy challenges, increased public scrutiny is not necessarily a bad thing.

By David Rothkopf

Published on Jul 10, 2009

Source: CBS's Washington Unplugged

After enjoying months of good press coverage in the U.S. and around the world, President Obama’s honeymoon finally came to an end in July of 2009. Speaking with Bob Schieffer on CBS News’s Washington Unplugged, David Rothkopf explained that the press is starting to scrutinize Obama more closely, now that the administration is starting to get down to the “nuts and bolts” of how to address difficult policy challenges that cannot be solved by presidential charisma alone.

According to Rothkopf, the end of the honeymoon is not a sign of any real problems for the administration; this is typical of the media’s relationship with a new president. In fact, the public may be better off now that Obama's long honeymoon is over. “You start being president with all of the responsibilities on day one,” Rothkopf says, “so this idea of a honeymoon is not really optimal from the perspective of the American people. The scrutiny needs to start on day one.”

About the Author

David Rothkopf

Former Visiting Scholar

David Rothkopf was a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment as well as the former CEO and editor in chief of the FP Group.

Recent Work

In The Media
How Bush, Obama, and Trump Ended Pax Americana
- David Rothkopf
In The Media
A Bigger Clubhouse
- David Rothkopf

Political Reform North America United States

Carnegie India does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.

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