Why Obama Should Not Hold Another Press Conference

According to a book being put out by Politico, the Obama campaign is an absolute mess. David Axlerod and Stephanie Cutter barely speak, no one properly communicates with the President and he does a terrible job of coordinating between the White House and his campaign. Politico pretends like Obama wants to be above it all but then acknowledges that the President hates Mitt Romney. What once was a well oiled machine, able to fill an arena at the mere announcement of a speech has turned into a bickering nightmare where staffers beg people to come listen to the President speak.

The problem of course Obama who entered the White House with no managerial experience and largely didn’t manage the details of his 2008 campaign. We could go on and on about Obama’s managerial deficiencies of course. Yesterday provided a glimpse into Obama’s failed managerial style as he bowed before the press and made a surprise appearance at Jay Carney’s press conference. He clearly bowed to pressure from the whining White House press corps which is outraged over his interviews with Entertainment Tonight and People. A good President with good advisers around him would have been advised not to do a press conference but rather do a sit down interview with one or two television networks.

Why Obama shouldn’t do press conferences was evident  yesterday when he was pressed about the tone of  his campaign. He declared that no one in his campaign ever accused Mitt Romney of being a felon. This relates to Romney’s time at Bain Capital and various documents he signed after he left his management position. There was nothing illegal about what he did, he was still the CEO even though he had no management authority. In any event, Obama denied his campaign called Romney a felon which would be fine except Stephanie Cutter did just that. Cutter is one of Obama’s top campaign managers and spokesmen. She’s on par with David Axlerod. She accused Romney of being a felon therefore the Obama campaign called Romney a felon.

Obama then took it a step further by declaring that his campaign had nothing to do with the Joe Soptic ad which alleges, falsely, that Mitt Romney is responsible for his wife’s death from cancer. Obama wants to blame his Super PAC and PAC Money generally, he wants to attack the Citizens United case. Unfortunately his campaign was involved with Joe Soptic and his story. Once again Stephanie Cutter is involved, she was on a conference call with Soptic touting his story back in May. A slide show even appeared on Obama’s campaign web site.

You can see why Obama shouldn’t be doing press conferences. He always seems to say something absurd, misleading or outright bizarre. His last American presser in June saw him say that the private sector is doing just fine, his G20 presser saw some of the most absurd and nonsensical answers one could ever imagine hearing from the leader of the free world. After yesterday’s press conference you have to reach one of two conclusions. Either Obama is a liar and such a liar that he doesn’t think that within 30 seconds the opposition won’t come up with evidence of the lie or he has no idea what his campaign is doing. We have a choice, either our President is a liar or he has no idea how what his campaign is doing and therefore looks a very poor manager. If the latter is true, doesn’t it make you wonder what he’s missing as President?

In the spirit of charity I will assume that he simply has no idea what his campaign is up to. That he doesn’t know if his campaign called Romney a felon suggests he’s become completely out of touch with both his campaign and the news generally. This was a major news issue for several days back in July, you have to wonder how the President missed it considering his campaign was behind it. He seems to have no idea whatsoever what his campaign is doing. As Politico suggests, he talks to his campaign managers in broad terms but they’re largely left to themselves. He has the wrong people in the wrong places and he doesn’t even notice. The nice thing about that is things may only get worse for Obama in the coming months and the fallout ought to be priceless.