Will the Candidates Commit To An Obvious Budget Cut In the White House?

News content is actively designed before it is released. In the White House there is an office of Assistant to the President for Communications and White House Communications. Its mission is to devise strategies to promote the President’s agenda and to assure that it is delivered effectively through all media. President Nixon created the position. Republican and Democratic Presidents have expanded its size ever since. The office currently has eleven (11) director level staff positions supported by a significant office staff organized as follows:
• Assistant to the President for Communications and White House Communications Director
o Special Consultant to the President for Media Affairs
o Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of Communications
o Assistant to the President and Director of Speechwriting
o Director of New Media
o Director of Media Affairs
o Director of Broadcast Media
o Director of Specialty Media
o Director of Hispanic Media
o Director of Citizen Participation
o Director of African American Media
The office of Assistant to the President for Communications and White House Communications works closely with the office of the White House Press Secretary to disseminate the President’s agenda through “news” media. The White House Press Secretary has three supporting assistant management positions (plus office staff). In total the two offices have 15 management level staff designing and delivering the President’s message.
The director titles make it clear that the office has been designed to specially target message delivery to Hispanics and African Americans, two ethnic groups that were key constituencies in President Obama’s election and are considered to be key to his reelection. Normally the top position is filled by someone who was intimately connected to the President’s election management. George Stephanopoulos was President Clinton’s deputy campaign manager and then became the Assistant to the President for Communications and White House Communications, for example.
To paraphrase a famous saying, “If it walks like an election influence machine and quacks like an election influence machine, it must be an election influence machine”
I do want to present a balanced picture. Both Republicans and Democrats have used this office to design and deliver politically favorable news and influence public sentiment in elections.

Mr. Obama / Mr. Romney will you commit to eliminating this unneccessary expenditure?