As I predicted earlier today, the White House has decided to get Barack Obama out of his bunker mode and have him issue a statement on the S&P downgrade today (as well as on Afghanistan) at 1 pm ET.  It’s difficult to predict which version of the administration spin he will back in his address.  Will it be that S&P is totally incompetent in its analysis, or that S&P is totally right about the politics of budgeting and that it’s all the fault of the Tea Party?  Trying to blend the two is a near impossibility, but I boldly predict that won’t daunt the President from an attempt to do so.

The breaking news flash specified a “statement” from Obama, not a press conference.  That makes it seem as though Obama won’t take questions from the press corps, but that could change.  If not, it won’t exactly be a profiles-in-courage moment from this generation’s ersatz Camelot.  Surprisingly, some Democrats are coming to the same conclusion, and lamenting what might have been:

At a New York political event last week, Republican and Democratic office-holders were all bemoaning President Obama’s handling of the debt-ceiling crisis when someone said, “Hillary would have been a better president.”

“Every single person nodded, including the Republicans,” reported one observer. …

Looking as if she were about to cry, an 83-year-old Obama supporter shook her head. “I’m so disappointed in him,” she said. “It’s true: Hillary is tougher.”

During the last few days, the whispers have swelled to an angry chorus of frustration about Obama’s perceived weaknesses. Many Democrats are furious and heartbroken at how ineffectual he seemed in dealing with Republican opponents over the debt ceiling, and liberals are particularly incensed by what they see as his capitulation to conservatives on fundamental liberal principles.

In Connecticut, a businessman who raised money for Obama in 2008 said, “I’m beyond disgusted.” In New Jersey, a teacher reported that even her friends in the Obama administration are grievously disillusioned with his lack of leadership—and many have begun to whisper about a Democratic challenge for the 2012 presidential nomination. “I think people are furtively hoping that Hillary runs,” she said.

I seriously doubt that Hillary would want to run in this environment, and I’m not so sure that the woman who presented Russia with the “reset” button would have been any better at this job than Obama.  She could hardly have been worse, though.  If she did run, it’s also questionable whether she would attract the hard Left that is expressing so much disappointment in Obama; Hillary is more of a centrist pragmatist than Obama, and that’s really saying something about Obama.

If this continues, though, we may yet see a semi-serious challenge in the primaries from someone on the Left with more credibility, which will erode Obama’s ability to shift to the center for the next election.

Update: The statement has been delayed until 1:30.  CBS’ Mark Knoller tweets: “Pres. Obama’s statement delayed till 130pm. Hope S&P doesn’t grade on fiscal punctuality. Could mean another downgrade.”

Update II: Forty-three minutes late now and no Obama.  I’ve updated the post photo accordingly.

Update III: Obama spoke for about ten minutes, and had absolutely nothing new to offer.  He hinted at having a plan to deal with tax reform and “modest” entitlement reform, but wouldn’t even commit to producing it.  NBC’s Chuck Todd nailed it on Twitter: “You get the sense, WH knew they had to say something given the news of the weekend but he didn’t have much NEW to say.”