QUOTE OF THE DAY - AT 11:38 A.M. ET:  From Michael Barone, in the Washington Examiner, on the White House assault on Fox News, including the charge that Fox isn't a legitimate news organization, like the others:

"Other news organizations, like yours," Obama consigliere David Axelrod told ABC News, "ought not to treat them that way."

In other words, when Fox breaks the news that the White House green czar is a self-proclaimed "Communist" or that operatives of pro-Obama ACORN have been aiding and abetting child prostitution, other news outlets should spike the story. Or risk being demoted from great friend to bad apple.

Last February, Obama told Fox News (to which I am a contributor), "I don't always get my most favorable coverage on Fox, but I think that's part of how democracy is supposed to work. You know, we're not supposed to all be in lockstep here."

Now we are. Maybe Obama thought everyone in Washington would be his great friend. Having encountered un-Chicago-like dissent and disagreement, he has responded with classic Chicago brass knuckles. We'll see how far this kind of thuggery gets him.

COMMENT:  Well said.  One of the mistakes Jimmah Carter made, among many others, was bringing to Washington a group of local operatives and setting them loose on the national stage.  They didn't know the territory.

Obama has done the same with his Chicago crowd, which apparently thinks the St. Valentine's Day massacre was good sport. 

The president is being hurt, and doesn't realize it.  Neither did Carter.

October 24, 2009