Imagine If Barack Obama Was Losing His Hair

As New York's Vulture column snarkily notes, the story about Barack Obama turning grey is back. We'll let them talk about the coverage. We have a more basic question--what does it mean that our president is getting grey hair?

If you believe television's vanity commercials, greyness=oldness, the most visual example is here, as a dyed-up heroes Walt Frazier and Keith Hernandez "rescue" Emmitt Smith from the "Running Back Rest Home" by dye-ing his goatee. That's friendship!

But out of tv-land, the message grey sends is a little more subtle. 

*It signifies stress. The Times headlines its story:  "For Young President, Flecks of Grey," suggesting that young is a contrast to grey. It makes the stress comparison more specifically here:

For a guy who prides himself on projecting a stress-free demeanor, the changes above his temples are speckled evidence that perhaps the psychological and physical strains of the job — never mind the long process of winning it — are in fact taking something of a toll. (Experts say stress can contribute to whitening locks.)

*It signifies gravitas. As the Washington Post headline notes, "Obama's Wearing His Grays as Distinguished Look of the Presidency" 

*And it does so by tying those two things to age. Essentially, the message is that whatever is happening--stress or age--that Obama's image in no way suffers from this change. Either he's taking the job seriously or getting older, both of which compliment his efforts as president.

As always, this coverage reveals as much if not more about the coverage than it does about Obama. The interviews with his barber suggest the lengths reporters will go to read and interpret anything having to do with Obama. 

Just imagine if he was going bald!

--J.S.

On speaking

The press conference has become an important part of any president's experience; presidents are judged by how many press conferences they hold, who they call on, and most importantly how they answer. As an aside, press conferences are no longer press conferences--reporters are now the media not the press, and it's not really a conference either. 

In any case, here's how press conferences work: A man or woman stands in front of a lot of reporters, who are trying to achieve a few things. They want to get information through direct interrogation. They want to look smart. And they are hoping most of all that the question they ask leads to "news"--which means information that the subject of the press conference was not going to reveal.

The subject of the press conference wants to look smart, seem open and willing to talk casually and formally at the same time, and most of all, not tell the reporters anything he or she did not want to say. In other words, it's both a chance for information exchange and a bit of a test of wills.

It's clearly performance on both sides, and the performance is for the subject, reporters, and a variety of audiences, all of whom have rooting interests in the outcome. 

In this case, the "news," defined as something new or noteworthy, was more meta--Obama had a good press conference and made his case to the American public. That news has little to do with the substance of press conference but rather its context and style. Indeed, the biggest "news" that seemed to come out of the press conference was the fact that Obama called on a Huffington Post reporter, the type of meta-news that the Internet loves. 

The evaluations of Obama's conference make sense if you see the bigger picture. One reporter, John Dickerson said he sounded like a professor. I think it's been a while since Dickerson has been in school--what professor stands in front of the room and takes questions from his students like that--wearing an expensive suit? And why is being a professor a bad thing? (Note: I'm a professor and I think it's a good thing.)

But Dickerson's observation speaks to the larger point that Obama had answers to the questions, as a professor is supposed to.

I agree with Jon Stewart--it was nice to hear answers in complete sentences. And it was an important milestone in a president's term: the first news conference and one in which he seemed relatively comfortable. In the first test of wills, Obama clearly won. But the reporters won too by having lots of written material for their stories.

--J.S.