Obama and the press: Who said they were cozy?

By the time President Obama stepped up to the podium last Thursday in the East Room, the news media were fully primed - not only with questions about the BP oil disaster, but with this factoid: It was President Obama's first full press conference since July 22, 2009.

The public may have felt Obama entered office with an adoring press corps, but if that was ever true, it certainly is not now. Frustrations over access have been widespread. And it's not just the infrequency of hour-long press conferences (six since taking office, including just four during prime-time). Obama has had far fewer short question-and-answer sessions with the press pool than did his two immediate predecessors: only 53 in his first 15 months in office, versus 176 for President Bush and 312 for President Clinton, says Martha Joynt Kumar, a political scientist at Towson University. Analysts of White House communications say the buck stops with Obama himself. If he was interested in having more daily give and take with reporters, it would happen. Obama's approach speaks to the type of person he is - as a policy person, an academic, a lawyer -- and his strategic view of the presidency.