Six Words From Obama, and a Barrage in Return From the G.O.P.

From The New York Times:

With good reason, presidents have long been said to hold the power of the bully pulpit. But when President Obama sought to wield it on Friday, by calling a White House news conference to showcase his concern for the economy and Republicans’ refusal to work with him, he was the one who ended up getting pummeled.       

By late afternoon, Mr. Obama was forced to clarify one line from his morning session with reporters — “the private sector is doing fine” — after Congressional Republicans and his presidential rival, Mitt Romney, had seized on the comment to criticize Mr. Obama as out-of-touch and detached from the millions of Americans who cannot find jobs or have given up looking.

“Listen, it is absolutely clear that the economy is not doing fine. That’s the reason I had the press conference,” Mr. Obama said in clarifying his earlier remark when asked about Mr. Romney’s criticism during an Oval Office appearance with the president of the Philippines, Benigno S. Aquino III.

“There are too many people out of work. The housing market is still weak and too many homes underwater,” Mr. Obama said. “And that’s precisely why I asked Congress to start taking some steps that can make a difference.” He ended, “What I’m interested in hearing from Congress and Mr. Romney is what steps are they willing to take right now that are going to make an actual difference. And so far, all we’ve heard are additional tax cuts to the folks who are doing fine.”

But for the day at least, the damage was done, as Republicans hijacked the news cycle with their barrage against Mr. Obama’s six words in a professorial 29-minute exchange. While the metaphor of the bully pulpit originated with President Theodore Roosevelt about a century ago and generally remains apt, it does not allow for a 21st-century media environment of constant cable television chatter, blogging and instant Internet videos that empower a president’s opponents to bully back.
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From The Washington Post:

It would be hard to imagine a greater gift than the sound bite that Barack Obama handed to Republicans on Friday: “The private sector is doing fine.”

At a moment when the president is struggling to connect with the economic anxieties of the American public, that statement is likely to show up again and again in attack ads, conservative commentary and Republican stump speeches between now and November.

Those six words now stand as Exhibit A in the GOP’s case that, as Obama’s opponent Mitt Romney put it minutes later, the president is “detached and out of touch” on the issue that ranks at the top of voter concerns.

Republicans know well how toxic and corrosive one such remark can be. In 2008, their own nominee, John McCain, never recovered from his declaration that “the fundamentals of our economy are strong,” even as the financial system was melting down that September. And it was then-candidate Obama who had mocked him: “Senator, what economy are you talking about?”