Obama, Gibbs, and Tardiness

In at least one respect, Barack Obama has made good on his promise to bring change to Washington.

He has set himself apart from President Bush when it comes to punctuality.

Obama was late for his very first official news conference as the president-elect, on November 7, 2008. (That was the one when he mocked Nancy Reagan.)

As FOX News reported in February, Obama's tardiness was habitual.

There's a new time zone in the nation's capital: Obama Time.

Barely two weeks into his presidency, Barack Obama has made a clean break from George W. Bush in several high-profile moves, including reversing a number of the 43rd president's policies.

He's also reversed an unwritten but much-noticed Bush policy: Be on time, all the time.

Obama has been routinely late to events and news conferences, including the ones at which he reversed Bush's orders. This has led to an already familiar refrain from the Obama camp: "He's running late."

The president was 45 minutes late Friday for a ceremony in which he introduced a team of outside economic advisers. He was 10 minutes late Thursday to a memo signing at the Energy Department. He was nearly 30 minutes late Wednesday for the ceremony at which he signed a bill to expand children's health care.

Even before the inauguration, Obama wasn't a punctual sort; he arrived late to a Jan. 8 news conference on the economy that was aired live by broadcast and cable networks.

When it comes to following the clock, Obama closely resembles Bill Clinton, who was famously late to events when he was president. By contrast, Bush despised being late and was punctual to a fault. He set the tone early in his presidency -- he arrived at the Capitol five minutes early for his inauguration.

"To me, being tardy, it's got to be one of two things," said presidential historian Doug Wead, who advised both Bush and his father, George H.W. Bush. "Bad organization that can be corrected, or it's arrogance. It sounds to me like this is arrogance."

Obama's tardiness has rubbed off on White House press secretary Robert Gibbs.

On Friday, members of the White House press corps made their frustration known.



TVNewser reports:

As the daily press briefing began this afternoon at 2:07pmET, several members of the White House press corps spoke up to press secretary Robert Gibbs about his tardiness.

FishbowlDC reports that the briefing began about 20 minutes after the two minute warning was given and that ABC's Jake Tapper "had taken charge with two visits to the Lower Press office to complain during the long wait."

By the time Gibbs arrived, members of the press corps could be heard complaining saying things like, "it irritates everybody here."

We hear the late briefings are a pattern, and that it was not an issue during the Bush administration.

I think presidential historian Doug Wead nails it. Chronic tardiness is a sign of bad organization or arrogance.

In the case of Obama and his administration, I think it's both bad organization and arrogance.

But mainly arrogance.
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Read "Why President Bush was Late..." by Wordsmith, Flopping Aces.