With uncertainty growing over his domestic and foreign policy efforts, President Barack Obama closed out a tough week by turning to his most effective political strategy — focusing on fatherhood and personal responsibility.
“What truly makes a man a father is the ability to raise the child and invest in that child,” Obama told a town hall highlighting fatherhood at the White House. “We need fathers to be involved in their kids’ lives, not just when it’s easy.”
The president’s deep pivot from violence in Iran and his troubled health care reform effort was timed to highlight his personal strengths on Father’s Day, and comes with a media blitz that has emerged as a hallmark of Obama’s White House image building.
As the nation’s most prominent family man, Obama appears Sunday on the cover of Parade magazine with daughters Malia, 10 and Sasha, 8, for an essay he wrote on fatherhood.
The president also sat down with CBS News for “Barack Obama: An American Dad” to air Sunday morning, with a follow-up on Monday.
His Friday schedule at the White House also included a visit to a program that helps at-risk youth and a mentoring event, complete with a family-style barbecue on the South Lawn.
The White House promoted Obama’s schedule as the start of a “national conversation” on issues relating to fatherhood and responsibility.
For Obama, the shift in focus puts him back in a comfort zone from the campaign — making a personal appeal, setting a good example and highlighting his own story. For Obama, mingling the personal and political have proven a winning formula that keeps his approval ratings high — even when support for his policies is slipping.
“People have been hungry to see an ideal family in the White House,” said Sheryl Salomon, editor of BlackVoices at AOL. “Any time you mention those girls there is a lot of interest from our community, people love news on the girls.”
The nation’s first black president talking about fatherhood and personal responsibility carries a potent social message, particularly among African Americans, where concern over absent fathers — Obama frequently mentions being raised by a single mother — is a prominent issue.
In his remarks Friday, Obama mentioned that his father gave him his first basketball and took him to his first jazz concert. In pushing for health care reform, the president makes frequent mention of his mother’s worries about health coverage — as she was dying from ovarian cancer.
Communications consultant Tony Shelton said Obama is playing to his strengths — but may risk a backlash. Shelton noted a growing perception that Obama is taking an uncommonly high profile with back-to-back network news events and frequent public appearances.
“I think people want to feel some kinship with the president, and one of his strengths through his whole campaign has been his ability to connect with people,” Shelton said. “And he is continuing to do that successfully — just as long as it doesn’t get to be too much.”
