Someday, Barack Obama might make a fine professor somewhere. In the meantime, someone should remind him that he's still President of the United States . . . If President Obama thought he was going to score some easy media points by sitting down for an interview with Mika Brzezinski last Friday, he was badly mistaken. Morning Joe aired the interview today, to bad reviews by its guests.
Dem Donny Deutsch didn't want to say--but said--that Obama looked "checked out," and seemed like he "wants to go home." Mark Halperin observed that Republicans resonate when they say that Obama is not "taking control." Commenting on Obama's long disquisition on the complications of the Syrian situation, Halperin observed: "it's up to the President of the United States to take some bold action to try to address [problems] and not just sit and say here's why this is hard, here's why this is hard." It's as if Barack Obama sees himself in the faculty lounge, offering exquisite insights on the problems of the day, rather than in the Oval Office, with the obligation to address them. View the video after the jump.
Consider the dangers for the United States and the world at large of having a checked-out Professor-in-Chief in lieu of an energetic President.
DONNY DEUTSCH: We were commenting while we were watching your interview, Mika. We have watched this guy for eight years now. I've never seen a less-engaged look in his eyes. He almost seemed, I don't want to say checked-out because that is not the right thing, but watching him, his cadence was different. He feels like he almost wants to go home at this point.
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: I guess that is one way you could see it.
. . .
MARK HALPERIN: The criticism that I think has the most resonance from Republicans as a matter of politics in the short term and medium term is that he is not taking control of things. His analysis of how difficult the problems are in your interview, I think was very nuanced and very accurate. But what some people are saying is, yeah, there are big problems. It's up to the President of the United States to take some bold action to try to address them, not just sit and say here's why this is hard, here's why this is hard, here's why this is hard.
