Should Barack Obama hire a well-known media figure as his WH press secretary?

BE-ELECTED
by Chad Rubel

Given the passing of Tony Snow over the weekend, I wondered whether he would still be press secretary if the colon cancer hadn't forced him to leave the post. Oh, he said something about the job not paying enough ($168,000) when he left, an insult to the 94% of Americans who make under $100,000 a year. But he likely left because of his health.

Whatever you might have to say about Snow, hiring him as press secretary was a brilliant tactical move by the Bush Administration. For the first time, one of their own, the MSM, was hired to be the White House press secretary.

Traditionally, White House press secretaries are plucked from obscurity and placed in front of the feeding frenzy of the MSM. Who had heard of Ari Fleischer, Scott McClellan, or Dana Perino before their move to the big stage?

But hiring Tony Snow meant that the MSM would be nicer and kinder to one of their own. And they were much nicer. Not that the MSM has actually been in a feeding frenzy with Fleischer, McClellan, and Perino, but they were much nicer to Snow.

So would the same formula work if Barack Obama becomes president? Should Obama hire a well-known media person to be his press secretary?

Now it's entirely possible that a great idea might fall flat on its face, given how much harder the MSM will be on a Democratic president than a Republican one. But this is all the more reason to hire someone who is known to the MSM, someone who the MSM might lighten up on. And if Obama pursues the strategy, it is vital that the first press secretary be this well-known person.

In my lifetime, I have seen two Democratic presidents, and one of those got a honeymoon from the press (Carter). After the beating Clinton took from the press starting on January 21, 1993, Obama desperately needs someone in the trenches that can give him a huge advantage. Obama needs momentum, and anything that can get that rolling would be a huge start.

Obama does have a better understanding of this world when he hired award-winning television and print journalist Linda Douglass. She is working on the campaign as a senior strategist and as a senior campaign spokesperson. Having a media-savvy president will certainly help manage and massage the MSM.

It's certainly possible that Douglass has an inside shot at being the new press secretary. But Obama might be better off with a fresher face when he starts out in 2009.

So let's toss out some names. What known media persona would be a great choice as Barack Obama's first White House press secretary? Let us know what you think.

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