http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=35472D09-259A-405B-BE9F-2222561BD806 Government shutdown, cancelled trip leaves Obama schedule empty
By: Jennifer Epstein
October 7, 2013 07:44 PM EDT
President Barack Obama stayed at home this week, and now needs to fill the hours.
With his trip to Asia canceled, staffers furloughed and a declared refusal to negotiate with Republicans until the government reopens, the White House is left with a week-long hole in the president’s public schedule.
His public schedule for Tuesday includes only his standard briefings and a closed-press meeting with Vice President Joe Biden and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel.
On Monday morning, senior aides briefed Obama on the government shutdown’s effects on various programs, including Head Start. Then he traveled about a mile and a half for an unannounced stop at Federal Emergency Management Agency’s headquarters in Washington, and told agency employees he had planned to visit to get updated on the response to the now-dissipated Tropical Storm Karen. Instead, he stood at a lectern in a conference room and taped remarks in which he called on the House to vote on a clean continuing resolution. By the time they aired on cable news, his motorcade had already returned to the White House.
The White House has plans in the works and meetings — public and private — already on the president’s schedule, but Obama’s not likely to travel outside the Washington area or beyond the realms of the government shutdown and debt ceiling. With his advance team furloughed, the communications office short-staffed and any travel open to attacks about costs during a shutdown, Obama is geographically limited.
And while the White House usually releases a schedule of the president’s week ahead on Fridays or over the weekend, staffers have been tight-lipped on Obama’s plans for the week.
“As you saw today, he is having meetings related to the shutdown,” said press secretary Jay Carney. “He went to see some folks at FEMA to talk to them about what they’re doing in this storm season, as well as the effects of the shutdown and the potential effects of threatening default. And we will advise you as we have more scheduling available to advise you.”
Though the White House scrapped the Asia trip so that he could work on an agreement to end the government shutdown and to avoid the optics of being away while the country suffered, his aides never said that would mean he’d be negotiating. Instead, he’s repeating calls for Republicans to take action on a “clean” government funding bill.
“He’s got to be here, he’s got to be ready either to talk or to talk about not talking,” said Jeff Shesol, a former speechwriter for President Bill Clinton. “So even if he’s not actively negotiating with anyone at this moment, he’s not giving the House Republicans a chance to change the direction of the conversation.”
“The action or the lack of action is in Washington, and that’s where he ought to be,” added Jonathan Prince, a veteran of the Obama and Clinton administrations.
Monday’s FEMA trip followed a Friday stroll down Pennsylvania Avenue to grab sandwiches at Taylor Gourmet with Vice President Joe Biden and a Thursday speech at a construction company in the Washington suburbs. The president also sat Friday for a lengthy interview at the White House with the Associated Press.
In all of those appearances, he conveyed a similar message — tailored to the location and the day — urging Republicans to give up their demands to reopen the government and raise the debt ceiling.
“It’s repetition of the argument over and over again, which he clearly has to do to continue to hold the high side of the debate here,” said Mike McCurry, President Bill Clinton’s press secretary during the 1995-96 shutdown.
“The advantage of being here is that you can use the bully pulpit to effect,” he added, suggesting that the White House will be doing “a lot of communicating this week and trying to reinforce their position.”
Also notable is what Obama is not doing. Aware of the optics of even the most casual outing, the Obamas stayed in to celebrate their 21st wedding anniversary on Thursday, and the president stayed off the golf course over the weekend.
Short of responding to a natural disaster or a national security emergency, Obama has to keep his message focused on the crises at hand. “He’ll have to say more and more of the same until suddenly something shifts,” Shesol said. “One hopes that’s not because we’ve defaulted on our debts … and global markets take some sort of steep dive.”
“He’s hamstrung by the reality of the shutdown,” Shesol said. “They don’t have the full advance team or the full communications team you’d expect to fill up the calendar in the middle of a big fight like this.”
Travel is a good way to reach ordinary Americans and convey empathy, but Obama “can’t hop around the country as if it were business as usual when his message is that it’s not,” Shesol added.
