"We Don't Even Bother Raising Our Hands Any More..."

Guy Benson looks at Obama’s tightly-controlled press coverage so far:

As I watched President Bush’s final tango with reporters this morning, I was reminded of how Chicago Sun-Times columnist Carol Marin described President-elect Obama’s press conferences thus far:

“As ferociously as we march like villagers with torches against Blagojevich, we have been, in the true spirit of the Bizarro universe, the polar opposite with the president-elect. Deferential, eager to please, prepared to keep a careful distance.

The Obama news conferences tell that story, making one yearn for the return of the always-irritating Sam Donaldson to awaken the slumbering press to the notion that decorum isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

The press corps, most of us, don’t even bother raising our hands any more to ask questions because Obama always has before him a list of correspondents who’ve been advised they will be called upon that day.”

How long will the Obama-friendly press corps, no matter how “deferential” and “eager to please,” tolerate such tight management?

I give ’em four years, myself. Eight years tops.