Obama largely remains a distant figure to most reporters, appearing more removed from the national media than Clinton. Obama stiffs, stifles national press

EDINBURG, Texas — For all the positive press Barack Obama receives, as he moves closer to clinching the Democratic nomination he is establishing himself as the candidate who keeps the most distance from the national media.

Reporters covering Obama can no longer move freely among the thousands of zealous supporters at his events — unless the reporter receives a staff escort through the security gates. (In one city, that meant using a port-a-potty outside because the route to the indoor plumbing ran through the crowd.)


And the traveling press corps has been shut out of monitoring Obama's satellite interviews with local media outlets, which is a normal practice on Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign.

On top of that, the traveling media has been tussling with Obama aides to keep conversations with the candidate on his campaign plane on the record.

In any other campaign year, the media strategy might not raise eyebrows since it is standard practice for a front-runner. But this is a year when the likely Republican nominee, Sen. John McCain, has set a new standard for press accessibility, creating a potentially stark general election contrast between a reticent Democrat and the most accessible GOP nominee in decades.

McCain sits with reporters on his campaign bus. He jokes with them on the plane. He talks until they have no more questions to ask. The open-book policy creates a rapport that works to his advantage: A reporter who knows a candidate is more likely to give the benefit of the doubt.

Even after McCain went into crisis mode over a potentially lethal story in the New York Times last week, the Arizona senator did not retreat entirely from the media.

Obama is gregarious on the occasions when he interacts with the traveling press corps. But he largely remains a distant figure to most reporters, appearing more removed from the national media than Clinton — who has never been noted for her coziness with the press.

Indeed, after losing Iowa, Clinton upended her approach. Once reluctant to engage the traveling press corps, Clinton began holding availabilities roughly every other day. She dined with reporters at off-the-record gatherings, and chatted with them on her plane almost daily until they insisted the conversations be placed on the record. The frequency of the plane visits has since tapered off.

The Obama campaign, on the other hand, is mimicking the 2004 campaign playbooks of President Bush and Democrat John Kerry, who often bypassed the national press in favor of local media, which tended to focus on local issues and yield more favorable headlines.

Obama does between six and a dozen local interviews a day, according to the campaign. By contrast, he usually meets with the national media twice a week.

This past week, however, was unusual. Following a press conference last Monday, he answered 10 minutes worth of questions Saturday in Ohio — the same amount of time reserved earlier in the day for an unthreatening interview with Entertainment Tonight — to respond to harsh criticism from Clinton about one of his mailers. He went back for more questioning Sunday.

But in general, the candidate's time is better spent with the local press, said Robert Gibbs, Obama's communications director.

"The truth is, in a lot of these little communities, most people are going to get information from their most local media source," Gibbs said.

It's also true that press conferences with national media tend to veer into areas that do not necessarily underscore the campaign's message of the day. The focus is often not on issues like the economy or health care, but on process and punditry, which campaigns loathe.

"The questions that seem to dominate now are superdelegates, pledged delegates, Florida and Michigan," Gibbs said. "I just don't know that they provide a tremendous insight into the type of president" he would be.

A matchup with McCain "would not necessitate changing the way we deal with the media," Gibbs said. Clinton spokesman Jay Carson took a different tack, saying that the Democratic nominee would need to engage fully with the press.

"Any candidate who is going to be successful against John McCain has to feel comfortable spending a lot of time with reporters, and thoroughly and substantively answering anything and everything they ask," he said.

Meanwhile, the rules for covering Obama have grown by at least one in recent weeks.

Around the Super Tuesday primary elections on Feb. 5, the barriers around the press area at Obama events went from easily penetrable, fabric rope lines to interlocking metal gates manned by vigilant gatekeepers.

Bottom line: The media can no longer roam free.

For months prior to that, reporters could mingle among hundreds of supporters after rallies as Obama worked the rope line. It was a chance to see him interact with voters — and one of the few opportunities to squeeze in a question.

But camera crews and reporters often clogged the rope line, which annoyed Obama because he viewed it as his time to meet voters. Foreign TV crews would sometimes do stand-up shots there.

Now, reporters must usually flag down a staff member before entering the rope line area.

"We are fortunate to have a packed house, in addition to thousands of media from all over the world attending our events," campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki wrote in a statement. "We are always flexible in making sure the media has the access they need, but more importantly that the thousands of people who come out to the events have the best experience possible."

The remedy suggested to select reporters? Take off your press badge and slip past the gatekeepers.

For his part, Obama attempted to connect with the traveling press corps Friday. But just as soon as he started, he was gone again.

He poked his head out from behind a blue curtain at the visitors center at the University of Texas-Pan American campus. Reporters, hunched over their laptops, looked startled at the sight of the candidate. They hadn't interacted with him in five days.

"Words matter. Don't listen to Hillary," Obama yelled to the four dozen media, beaming a mischievous smile. "That's a joke."

One reporter, sensing the rare opportunity to fire off a question, asked Obama about McCain's criticism of his pledge to talk with Cuban president Raul Castro.

"I didn't hear John McCain," Obama said, even though his campaign put out a statement on that very topic 30 minutes earlier.

A second later, the Illinois senator disappeared behind the curtain — off to do an interview with US Weekly, the entertainment news magazine.