Obama: The new Nixon?

In a striking sign of President Obama's mounting image problems, Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd is comparing Obama to Richard Nixon for his frosty relationship with the press. Obama, like Nixon, seems to regard "scribes as intrusive," says Dowd, and he can't hide his "distaste for what he sees as the fundamental unseriousness of a press driven by blog-around-the-clock deadlines." Instead, Vice President Joe Biden has become the White House's friendly public face, horsing around with the press corps and doing more than his "self-pitying boss" to earn comparisons to JFK. Is it fair to compare Obama to Nixon, who battled with the press throughout his presidency, or has Dowd gone too far?

Even left-wingers finally see the truth about Obama: Thank goodness the liberal Maureen Dowd has shed her "hyper-partisanship" to recognize what we've been saying for months, says Don Surber at the Charleston, W.V., Daily Mail. The "narcissistic" Obama "is the center of his own little universe," and the White House now needs Joe Biden to play nice with the press while Obama complains about his coverage. "Obama as Nixon. Biden as Jerry Ford. We know how that ended."

"Dowd: Richard Milhous Obama"

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This is about Obama's relationship with Maureen Dowd, not the press: Boy, "unrequited love can be a killer," says Nichole Hungerford at NewsRealBlog. Starved for attention from her favorite president, Maureen Dowd has used her trademark "catty, name-calling" wit to trash Obama for his coldness to the press. "Let this be a lesson to liberal politicians when dealing with the media: Suffer the consequences if you're not willing to put out."

"Maureen Dowd: Obama is a 'self-pitying Nixon'"

Dowd's right — Obama needs to be nicer to reporters: Obama's approach to the media, even before his presidency began, has always been "proximity without access," says Ari Melber at The Nation. He recently went a "whopping 300 days without a formal press conference." Just imagine if "President Bush tried that move." Obama should heed the lesson in Dowd's broadside: "Stop complaining about the media you have," and start treating it like the media you want.

"The solution to Obama's BP press problem"