Goin' on Prime Time

[bcholmes]

Reading through some old blog entries from Paul Wells, I came upon this interesting bit:

Wolf Blitzer said something amazing tonight while George W. Bush was striding across Lafayette Square to give his latest New Orleans spiel: [This] was the nineteenth time this President has spoken live, at some length, to the American people on prime-time television.

Can you imagine such a thing happening in this country?

No, this is not a fan letter to George W. Bush. He is doing no more, and in fact he has done quite a bit less, in the way of public self-explanation than modern presidents since Nixon have done. People will write and tell me, Of course Bush had to give a big speech; he's sliding down the popularity drain. Great, that explains prime-time speech number 19. What about the first 18?

Nor, on this side of the border, am I singling out Paul Martin for blame. True, his only prime-time speech was the Please For The Love of God Don't Fire Me extravaganza of April, but it is impossible to believe Stephen Harper would be any chattier if he ever won the big job.

[...]

But who seriously believes that if you're having a hard time getting your message out, the solution is to spend less time trying? I mean, who besides our current national leaders?

It's a strange time in this country. Our leaders are saying as little as possible and then complaining nobody understands them. Apparently we're supposed to guess.