Obama's Office of Public Engagement replaced the more traditional Office of Public Liaison. The mission is the same-to connect the public with the White House-but the techniques are different. Obama's team has incorporated online video, blogs and other interactive elements, including tightly managed town halls, into the outreach mix.
Obama also quadrupled the size of the public liaison staff. According to the last Bush administration staff salary report, President Bush employed three people in his liaison office at a cost of $335,500.
Obama thus far has kept his promise to cap all salaries of aides earning more than $100,000, but he is spending far more money on new media experts than Bush, an indication of Obama's desire to modernize the press operation.
Although other staffers undoubtedly did work on the White House website and other Internet projects, Bush's dedicated new media team appears to have consisted of two people-a specialty media director who earned $84,000 a year and a website assistant who earned $34,000.
By contrast, Obama has the 11 employees in the Office of Public Engagement and another nine aides with titles such as new media director, new media creative director, deputy director of video and e-mail content/design lead. Those nine earn nearly $700,000 a year combined.
I guess given how flush our economy is, goodies like this make sense.
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