HERE, there and everywhere. U.S. President Barack Obama, ubiquitous at home, has brought his public charm offensive to the European stage. Switch on the television and sooner rather than later he will appear – at a prime-time news conference, a speech, a photo opportunity with a foreign leader, or a major international meeting. Europeans this week have seen Obama talking with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and arriving for tea with Queen Elizabeth, meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Chinese President Hu Jintao. Obama was among the world leaders attending the G20 summit in London on Thursday. At home, Obama has been making his mark on the presidency with a charm offensive, seeking to translate his high public popularity into support for a long list of ambitious priorities and policy shifts. One day he is mixing it up with comedian Jay Leno, host of NBC's “Tonight Show,” describing his motorcade: “We've got the ambulance and then the caboose and then the dog sled. The submarine. We've got a whole bunch of stuff going on.” And then he is seen making policy pronouncements or talking up the virtues of the embattled American car industry. The saturation approach has paid off – Obama has a job approval rating of 66 percent and is trusted far more than Republicans to do a better job handling the economy, according to a Washington Post/ABC News poll published this week. Mark McKinnon, who helped shape Republican George W. Bush's image as a presidential candidate and president, said Obama is right to “saturate across the board” and use his early days in the White House to push his agenda. “Any president has limited capital and it drains off pretty quickly. And the reality is the most important time of his administration will be the first six months, so he shouldn't hold anything back. He just won't have the same leverage he has right now next year,” McKinnon said. Others disagree. Gene Healy, a political expert at the right-leaning Cato Institute, said Obama risks over-exposure as the presidency continues to evolve from its relatively low-key beginnings more than two centuries ago. “What we see now is a very different conception of the office. He's everything from a national talk show host to quote, leader of the free world, unquote, the world policeman, the man who is supposed to keep you safe from hurricanes, improve the schools, heal the sick and cure spiritual malaise,” Healy said. The considerable challenges facing Obama are a major reason for the U.S. leader's constant presence. Obama won the presidential election based in part on his mastery of oratory, so it is no surprise that he is the best mouthpiece for his young administration. Presidential historian Thomas Alan Schwartz, a professor at Vanderbilt University, said it was in Obama's interest “to appear in a way to be the dominant figure out there,” given his ambitious agenda.
