When President Obama popped by the briefing room today, he declined to take a question on Libya but promised the press throng that he would take "a couple" tomorrow, when Mexican President Felipe Calderon is at the White House.
A couple may even be overstating it -- when Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper was here, the "press availability" consisted of one question per side. Obama, it seems, does not like the uncontrolled Q&A.
Why should you care? It goes to accountability. It's not enough for leaders to emote about policy. They should explain, defend and answer questions, as well. Grappling with the unscripted news media encounter is a good skill for politicians.
Obama in particular appears to have an aversion to the brief sessions -- typically, featuring the pool in the Oval Office -- that are a stock way for the White House to lead the news, get their message out and do it via the president, without all the angsty prep of a major presser.
Obama so far has endured just 75 short question-and-answer sessions with the press, according to Towson University political science professor Martha Kumar, who tabulates all things White House press ops.
During the same period in their own respective presidencies, George W. Bush did 258 short Q&As, Bill Clinton did a mind-numbing 408, and George H.W. Bush did 159. More than Obama, in short.
Still, Obama is not entirely cut off. He seems to like the sit-down interview, where he tends to make up the difference. Through Jan. 20, Obama sat for 150 interviews with national press. During the same period, W did 43 national press interviews, Clinton 31 and H.W. Bush 42. (Those totals don't include regional, foreign, ESPN, etc.).
The president's records also track the rise of television as the White House-preferred media (not exactly news to the rest of us, but still). Of Obama's interviews through Jan. 20, 52 percent were with TV. That compares with 46 percent for W, 30 percent for Clinton and 24 percent for Poppy.
Obama has been pretty clear that he finds the trivial obsessions of the press corps tedious -- who could blame him? And he doesn't love the staccato beat of a press conference. He's nearly eliminated the short Q&A from the arsenal, and prefers a sit-down, where he can give more expansive answers, and the whole thing is less likely to go haywire (see: Robert Louis Gates arrest). (VIDEO)
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