Reagan gave 27 Oval Office addresses in his presidency. Obama has given 2.

[reformist2]

I'm not saying quantity equals quality by any means, but this is a little bit embarrassing.

Reference: http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/major.html

[uppityperson]

1. OMG OMG OMG OMGOMGOMGOGOMGOMGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111111111111111111111111111111

[Xipe Totec]

2. 27 Oval Office addresses and what to show for it?

Can you list 27 accomplishments for the Gipper?

I can't.

[dsc]

7. I am not claiming these are good things

but Reagan accomplished a great deal. He lowered taxes on the rich from a marginal high of 70 to a marginal high of 28. He handed off to a successor of the same party. He made welfare a dirty word to such an extent that a Democratic President eliminated it. I could go on if needed.

[Xipe Totec]

9. These are accomplishments?

Please, don't go on.

[dsc]

11. yes they are

An accomplishment isn't necessarily positive. Reagan used those address to affect real, lasting change to our nation. Now that doesn't necessarily mean Obama should do those addresses but it does mean he should do something.

[Xipe Totec]

13. Well, if these are accomplishments, I recommend doing the opposite

And it follows that if having oval office addresses results in these accomplishments, we should have as few of them as possible.

[dsc]

14. It resulted in him being able to shape the country

which is what we presumedily want Obama to do.

[Xipe Totec]

19. In the wrong direction....

We presumedily want him to go in the opposite direction.

[Control-Z]

3. How many more threads

are you going to start about it?

[reformist2]

4. I hoped people wouldn't have knee-jerk responses, but realize this is an actual problem for Obama.

I think that despite his amazing ability to connect during campaign seasons, Obama is proving to be surprisingly disengaged and disconnected from the American people once in office. I think the lack of direct Oval Office addresses is a reason why. One of the great unwritten powers of the presidency is the "bully pulpit" - Obama needs to start using it!

[MattBaggins]

29. No you are simply trying, badly, to be stealthy

Your Holy Ronnie Saint Raygun gave speeches from the oval office. Obama gives them from factories where people work, schools where they learn and towns where they live.

Screw Raygun.

[JaneQPublic]

5. Reagan didn't have Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, webpages, phone apps...

Plus, by pre-empting someone's favorite TV show for a speech will likely not endear him to a major segment of the populace. The people who really don't want to listen to him now have many more channels to switch to than they did in St. Ronnie's day.

[CalFresh]

6. I wonder

how many did President Bush, Clinton, Bush do? Maybe 2 is the normal. President Reagan was very good in the Oval office addresses.

[Itchinjim]

8. And why would we give a shit

about Reagan?

[edbermac]

10. As one teacher told me in high school..."Quality, not quantity"

[reformist2]

17. True. But two addresses in 4 1/2 years...it's like he's not even trying.

[PennsylvaniaMatt]

53. He has directly addressed the country many times

I do think he should utilize the Oval Office more in addressing the nation, but he has directly addressed the nation several times from other locations.

March 2010 - The night health care passed the House
April 2011 - Speech on avoiding a govt. shutdown
May 2011 - Osama Bin Laden's death
June 2011 - An update on the war in Afghanistan
July 2011 - U.S credit default
May 2012 (From Afghanistan) - Update on the war
June 2012 - The day health care reform was upheld by the Supreme Court

And he has spoken to the nation countless numbers of times in a setting in front of the entire press pool - instead of directly looking into one camera. Let's not also forget the two times he addressed Congress in addition to the yearly State of the Union.

Setting wise, the Oval Office addresses are my favorite, and I hope he uses it more in his second term, but I think he has been very effective in communicating to the nation!

[Posteritatis]

12. Mass communication's changed a little bit since the eighties. (nt)

[Shankapotomus]

15. As I see it

quantity equals instability and public fear, in this case.

[bigtree]

16. networks don't tolerate that any more unless it's significant 'news' in their opinion

. . . if they decide it's not, they just refuse to broadcast it. The WH is well aware of this and has obviously worked to avoid the embarrassment of being rejected by some television head and have exploited several avenues in the new media sources and social networks on the internet. I suggest you google a bit and look at the extent of those efforts in this WH. They are unprecedented and effective.

[MannyGoldstein]

18. FDR gave about 600 press conferences

Yes, one a week.

[SidDithers]

20. Barack Obama - 9024 tweets. Ronald Reagan - 0 ...

It's like Reagan wasn't even trying.

Sid

[Itchinjim]

22. Ha!

[Whisp]

24. hahaha!!!

[TM99]

57. Of course, let's compare

actual speeches given to a national audience on TV with a collection of pithy little 140 character tweets.

It's like Obama communicates like a teenager instead of an adult.

[Paul E Ester]

58. lulz...nt

[Warpy]

21. This is a problem

I've said for years that Obama's main error is not using the bully pulpit effectively.

[Yavin4]

33. The bully pulpit is the most overrated tactic in the world

Republicans in congress do not care about Obama's speeches.

[Warpy]

34. No, but their constituents sure as hell do.

[Yavin4]

36. No. They don't.

Obama gave a brilliant inauguration speech as well as a state of the union address, and it didn't change a damn thing.

[Warpy]

37. Reagan knew the power of propaganda and used it for evil.

Obama needs to use it to inform all those people out there who are being disinformed by corporate media and talk radio.\

Why the hell do you think that GE snake oil salesman was so successful in office? It wasn't the soundness of his ideas or the lack of corruption in his administration, you know.

[Yavin4]

38. Reagan and Bush II asked for tax cuts for the rich and expanded war authority

The two easiest things to pass in congress.

[Whisp]

23. yeh, you should be embarassed. n/t

[BumRushDaShow]

25. Where is Raygun's YouTube channel?

With almost 290,000,000 views and over 500,000 subscribers?

http://www.youtube.com/user/BarackObamadotcom

[MattBaggins]

26. Why is this embarrassing? Who really cares?

[highprincipleswork]

27. He's too embarrassed to say anything

[Cha]

32. No, he's not. President Obama has other venues besides the Oval Office.

[KharmaTrain]

28. Welcome To The Era of 24/7 News Channels...

...today virtually everything President Obama says is carried live on one cable channel or another. Raygun had to deal with 30 minute nightly newscasts that were heavily edited. With those extra channels the major networks feel less obligated to carry another other than a big major address (State of the Union)...those who want to see or hear what the President is saying have many ways to do it now...

[Politicalboi]

30. If Obama gave 4

It would be called indoctrination to some.

[Yavin4]

31. The Networks Are Not Going To Clear Their Programming for Him

They would just put his speech on Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, or some other cable network.

[enlightenment]

35. A more apt comparison might be between FDR

and President Obama.

FDR gave 30 Fireside Chats - a connection to the people that was enormously useful. Eighteen of those were between 1933 and December 9, 1941 (declaration of war).

I realize that modern presidents have sort of replaced direct speech to the nation with televised press conferences, but it wouldn't hurt to hear from them "directly" a little more often.

[BumRushDaShow]

44. The "Fireside Chat" became the "Weekly Radio Address"

So the President has given over 200 Weekly Addresses to the people since he was elected. And not only do these have the audio broadcast on the radio, but they are recorded as a video for viewing.

Now the sad part is that the local news radio station here that runs them does so at ~6:07 a.m. on Saturday mornings (just after the feed is sent out), so people will think that he does nothing since they aren't awake when it airs.

[enlightenment]

45. Good point.

They are not well known (I honestly forgot about them) - I suppose that is also a symptom of our much more complicated world.

Thanks for the reminder.

[BumRushDaShow]

47. When GWB did his

this same local radio station played them at ~ 10:05 am on Saturday mornings - a more reasonable time for someone getting some coffee or breakfast and going about planning for the day. I.e., they recorded the feed and played it later in the morning.

Yet when this President was elected, they changed the Weekly Address airings to happen just after 6:00 am, not long after stations receive the satellite feed. So rather than save it for later in the morning like they did for Bush, they air it after their top stories and a commercial early in the morning when many people are still asleep.

This was the one that released this morning - done by the mother of one of the children killed in Sandy Hook.

[Poll_Blind]

48. +1 nt

PB

[enlightenment]

49. Interesting switch up.

Raises an eyebrow, certainly.

Thanks for the video - I did find the page with the all the audio addresses. It's bookmarked now!

[Yavin4]

39. We Live in a 1,000 Channel, Billions of Websites, and Video Games World...

Do you really, really think that people are going to stop and listen to Obama's speeches?

[JaneyVee]

40. And still managed a landslide election. No one watches TV anymore. It's a social media world.

[FSogol]

41. Unrec.

Double facepalms!

[davidn3600]

42. No one wants their reality shows interrupted by the President

[Bluenorthwest]

43. Fuck Ronald Reagan with Margaret Thatcher's handbag.

The Oval setting was his most frequent choice for a very mundane reason, the old fuck liked to sit, liked the intimate camera placement and prompting placement. He liked the camera to be physically close, movie style not distant in TV event style. Lacking an actual audience, Ronnie wanted the camera to play to and with, right there for him.
Of course Reagan with all his communications chops fucked this country over and his failure to communicate about or even to mention the increasing AIDS crisis cost time and lives. He did not mention it for years, no matter how many times they brought a camera up to the Oval for the old man to talk to.
Worst President of my lifetime.

[nyquil_man]

46. Reagan? The movie actor?

It's not surprising that a man who spent half his adult life in front of the camera would prefer speaking to a camera. That was how Reagan was comfortable communicating. It's far safer than playing to any crowd and much more easily controlled. President Obama prefers having an audience. He picks up on their energy and they pick up on his. There is a greater chance of the unexpected occurring but, when it works, it's a stunning thing.

I think your comparison speaks more to the mindsets and backgrounds of these two men than it does to their relative ability to communicate.

And, please, let's remember that Reagan was never as popular as his most rabid promoters pretend he was.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

54. The best acting president ever.

He actually seemed to believe some of the things that he was saying.

As an example, when he was reminiscing about flying over Germany during WW II to bomb the Germans, he sounded as though he was actually remembering that. But actually, he was remembering a role that he played in a movie about bombing Germany.

The guy was daft. An amiable idiot.

[MattBaggins]

51. Was this a drive by?

[spanone]

52. reagan was embarrassing.

[Historic NY]

55. So let me ask how long did it take to count them?

just saying......they had to keep Ronnie under their thumb along with Nancy's astrological musings.

[ProSense]

56. No

"Reagan gave 27 Oval Office addresses in his presidency. Obama has given 2."

...comparison: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022669897