The Discerning Texan

"FAKE INTERVIEWS?" The presence of interviewer Greg Packer was a tipoff!

Much more here:

Barack Obama’s campaign trip abroad was thought to be an effort to show him operating freely on the world stage. Instead, it has been a carefully managed exercise, designed to expose Obama to no contrary or potentially embarrassing viewpoints, and most of all, to shield him against the possibility that the media might capture a gaffe. . . . For all intents and purposes Obama was play-acting the role of a traveling statesman, eating meals and smiling but doing and saying nothing of consequence with what veteran network correspondent Mitchell described on “Hardball” as an unprecedented level of press restriction and manipulation.

In other words, another training-wheels exercise in what has been a training-wheels campaign. But the media folks are beginning to grouse. They're still covering for him, though:

For pete's sake, the gaffe was in response to a question about whether Obama is too inexperienced in foreign affairs — which would include being too gaffe-prone when speaking without a teleprompter — to "lead the country at war as commander in chief from day one." Can't he reasonably be expected to answer that question without screwing up? And if he can't, isn't that in itself newsworthy?

You'd think.

Michelle has a roundup of the big Obama Presser in Jordan, plus a catchy t-shirt!

1. “Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh.”

2. As commander-in-chief, er, rather, when I’m commander-in-chief…

3. The surge I opposed is working.

4. The architect of the surge, Gen. David Petraeus, is going to waste money on electricity projects, so I must be there to stop him.

5. “Ummmmmm.”

6. Now, stop asking me questions and take pictures.

And 7. “Israel is a strong friend of Israel.” (I missed this one, but commenter Jim M. and other readers report that Obama actually said this. Gaffe-tastic!)