Obamateurism of the Day

Few Presidents have gotten as easy a ride as Barack Obama, even in their first year of the presidency.  Until unemployment hit double digits, it wasn’t just a honeymoon Obama enjoyed from the press — at times it seemed like a year-long tongue bath.  Does Obama appreciate it?  According to Time Magazine’s Michael Scherer, not exactly.  Obama took some shots at the press after his trip to Beijing:

But it’s not going to come easily and it is going to require a level of cooperation and a willingness to work strategically together that we have not seen over the last several years. And frankly, this town and the way the political dialogue is structured right now is not conducive to what we need to do to be globally competitive. And all of you are leaders in your communities — in the business sector and the labor sector, in academia, we even have a few pundits here — it is important to understand what’s at stake and that we can’t keep on playing games.

I mentioned that I was in Asia on this trip thinking about the economy, when I sat down for a round of interviews.  Not one of them asked me about Asia.  Not one of them asked me about the economy.  I was asked several times about had I read Sarah Palin’s book.  (Laughter.)  True.  But it’s an indication of how our political debate doesn’t match up with what we need to do and where we need to go.

Unfortunately, as Scherer reports in an update, Obama’s need to demonize the (highly favorable) press outstripped his need to be truthful:

UPDATE: Over Twitter, reader MayBeeTweet points out that Obama did not accurately characterize his interviews in Asia. Fox News’ Garrett asked both about the jobs bill Obama has proposed and the South Korean trade agreement. NBC’s Chuck Todd asked about the jobs summit and Chinese relations on human rights.

Maybe the news media might learn a lesson or two from this exchange.  Primarily, Obama has no problem blaming everyone around him and belittling them to make himself look better — and all the toadying in the world from the media won’t keep them from going under Obama’s bus, fairly or unfairly.

Got an Obamateurism of the Day? If you see a foul-up by Barack Obama, e-mail it to me at [email protected] with the quote and the link to the Obamateurism. I’ll post the best Obamateurisms on a daily basis, depending on how many I receive. Include a link to your blog, and I’ll give some link love as well. And unlike Slate, I promise to end the feature when Barack Obama leaves office.

Illustrations by Chris Muir of Day by Day. Be sure to read the adventures of Sam, Zed, Damon, and Jan every day!