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By Pejman Yousefzadeh Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | Media Unavailability — Comments (2) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

Gee, with things going so well for Barack Obama, you would think that he would open up a little.

Alas . . .

For all the positive press Barack Obama receives, as he moves closer to clinching the Democratic nomination he is establishing himself as the candidate who keeps the most distance from the national media.

Reporters covering Obama can no longer move freely among the thousands of zealous supporters at his events -- unless the reporter receives a staff escort through the security gates. (In one city, that meant using a port-o-potty outside because the route to the indoor plumbing ran through the crowd.)

And the traveling press corps has been shut out of monitoring Obama's satellite interviews with local media outlets, which is a normal practice on Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign.

On top of that, the traveling media has been tussling with Obama aides to keep conversations with the candidate on his campaign plane on the record.

In any other campaign year, the media strategy might not raise eyebrows since it is standard practice for a front-runner. But this is a year when the likely Republican nominee, Sen. John McCain, has set a new standard for press accessibility, creating a potentially stark general election contrast between a reticent Democrat and the most accessible GOP nominee in decades.

That last paragraph should be especially noteworthy. If Obama is elusive now, one can only imagine how inaccessible he would be if things suddenly stopped going well for him.

And here I was thinking that our political establishment was on the cusp of The Age Of Aquarius, when old political rules are overturned in favor of a new freshness and openness.

So much for that.