Obama has a problem. He never spent the time in politics needed to make the connections that are oh so necessary to getting anything important accomplished. So congress is filled with hardline republicans who will never help him on matter of principle, hardline liberals who think he spends too much time courting moderate republicans and not enough time running roughshod over the enemies, and moderate republicans whom he desperately tries to please in all the ways but the important ones(some moral caveats in the embryonic stem cell research bill would have done wonders for example). What is he to do?

Turn up the Obama charm machine and rally the popular support of the nation, kinda like he's been doing since before he was president. Your not getting that with youth supporter oriented youtube videos, and fireside chats would be expensive, people would avoid them, and they woulld resent their favorite shows being pre-empted by him(as Syd noted). A far better choice would be Leno; it gets good ratings, Leno is neither hostile or inclined to ask any real biting questions, and people will actively tune in just to see the president. Same thing with the basketball brackets. It didn't take long, and Obama genuinely likes basketball so it doesn't come off as a fake appeal to the common man(unlike the democratic bar escapades). If his plans and proposals work, and he believes they are, then he only needs to really succeed in the short term. "The man who saved the economy" would then be all he needs to get anything else he wants done done.

Jeebus, so you think he should be drawn and quartered over it, or are you bitter about the treatment of the poor downtrodden republicans? Here's an equally nuanced response to your post; Life isn't fair.