I know jobs in America are hard to come by these days, but there is one job in America that you could not melt me and pour me on. It’s not the pay. The pay is alright at $172, 200 per year.
The hours would be okay, too. I have never seen this person working at night or early in the morning, but he probably is on call. The hours are probably not too long and perks would be good.
It’s a government job in Washington (that’s job security) and is very close to the epicenter of power. The job answers to the occupant of the White House. These days that fellow answers to the name Barack Obama and, therein, lies the rub.
The job is the President’s Press Secretary and his name is Jay Carney. Many people cast negative comments toward Mr. Carney and I understand. They say that they don’t trust anything that comes out of his mouth and his main job is to take the truth of a situation and talk around it so delicately as to render the truth unrecognizable.
To that I say, “Well, duh?”
A press secretary is supposed to have his boss’ back, as they say. His or her job is to come out and meet the press every day and respond to their probing questions as to what the heck is going on. They are to take those questions and massage them, parse the words, and by the time the allotted press time is over, their success is judged by how little truth they have actually told.
Would you like Jay Carney’s job? I’m not asking whether you would like to make $172,200 a year. Who wouldn’t? What I am asking is whether or not you would like to have to defend everything the president might have to say or do?
Up until lately, this particular president has made the press secretary job pretty easy.
For the most part, the press corps seemed to like this president and most of the questions asked were sort of like slow-pitch, lobbed softballs. Lately, though, it’s gotten a little testy.
It started with Benghazi last year. The election took some of the heat off that and 2013 looked as if it might be the year when the President got back on track with his transformational agenda.
But this year has brought a bevy of scandals and it seems as if each new one raises the heat in the kitchen just a few degrees. And guess who feels the heat the most. That’s right, the press secretary who has to answer all the questions. That’s one job I would not want.
There was an IRS scandal, an Associated Press scandal, a Syrian challenge, and the Attorney General’s office is always good fodder. Carney has been able to deflect most of the heat.
This most recent one, though, the Obamacare debacle, just won’t go away. What did the President say and when and how? When is the website going to “straighten up and do right?” What about all those doctors and plans that have been thrown into disarray?
If I’m Jay Carney, I’d call in sick. Except that at the next press conference, some reporter would want to know if I saw the same doctor.