Even TIME's Michael Scherer can't help but note problems with the President's performance on all those TV outlets yesterday. And though he tries to present the President as positively as possible, the worst damage is simply quoting him....[Obama] declined to comment on whether or not ACORN, a nonprofit that was recently caught giving advice to an imposter pimp and prostitute, should be funded: "You know, it's -- frankly, it's not really something I've followed closely. I didn't even know that ACORN was getting a whole lot of federal money." On Afghanistan, Obama called himself a skeptic and said the strategy had still not been worked out. "You don't make decisions about resources before you have the strategy ready.
Gulp. The President seriously claims he was unaware that ACORN received a bunch of federal money? Who, even among his liberal pals, believes that? Also he maintains (and with a straight face, bless him) that he hasn't followed the issue? Again, the guy is losing all sense of credibility. This makes his every appearance on TV a negative instead of a positive.
His shrugging off the critical nature of the Afghanistan situation is particularly scary. After all this time, he doesn't have a strategy for winning that war? Does he really think the American public is supposed to give him a pass? Because...he's Barack Obama?
And I guess that if no one in the White House is talking to the Chief Executive about ACORN, neither is anyone bothering to mention Obama's top commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, whose report was given to the White House August 30th stating his conclusions that unless thousands more troops got there ASAP, the U.S. will lose this thing.
Nevertheless, Obama boasted on TV yesterday that he will not be "rushed" into a decision.
On other matters too, Scherer describes Obama's poor performance. Obama continued to insist that taxes within his health care plan were not really taxes and he took every opportunity possible to bash the media -- and not just Fox News either. With a few members of the old-guard media already beginning to develop a new skepticism about the President's abilities and character, this wasn't a very smart approach to take.
If the MSM does take a swing back towards objectivity and professionalism (though that's still a big "if"), this guy could be toast.
