THE OBAMA PRESIDENCY IS WORSE THAN A LIE – IT IS A BLUNDER

The 19^th century British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) once commented on accusations that a political opponent of his was lying regarding an important issue before Parliament:  "It is worse than a lie – it is a blunder."

Disraeli’s ghost is talking about our president today.

President Barack Hussein Obama went to a photo-op at a trucking firm in Hyattsville, Maryland last Friday (6/4), and made a fool of himself.

The addition of 431,000 jobs in May shows "the economy is getting stronger by the day," he said.

This was a remarkably stupid thing to say, since the employment report issued that morning by the Bureau of Labor Statistics was so disappointing the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 324 points on the news.

Nonfarm payroll employment did grow by 431,000 — but 411,000 were temporary jobs with the Census Bureau.  Private sector employment grew by just 41,000, the BLS said.  That represents a 75% decline in private sector job growth from April, which indicates a slowing, not a growing, economy. 

The economy needs to add at least 100,000 private sector jobs each month just to keep pace with population growth, so ground was lost in May.

The photo op in Hyattsville had been scheduled because the White House was expecting private sector employment to grow by about 150,000.  But when the bad news came out a few hours before, apparently neither the president nor his staff could adjust his prepared remarks in time to keep Mr. Obama from sounding silly.

There’s been a lot of that lately.  President Obama’s policies have been unpopular for quite some while.  Now his sluggish reaction to the oil spill in the Gulf has some doubting his competence, and the burgeoning Jobsgate affair has some doubting his integrity.

Republicans, understandably, stress that someone in the White House may have committed a felony if federal jobs were offered to Rep. Joe Sestak in Pennsylvania and to former Colorado House Speaker Andrew Romanoff in exchange for dropping out of Democrat primaries.

Democrat political professionals have other concerns.

The first is that the meddling in the Democrat primaries in Pennsylvania and Colorado was gratuitous.  Mr. Sestak and Mr. Romanoff were as likely to support the Obama agenda as Sens. Arlen Specter and Michael Bennet, and, arguably, are stronger general election candidates.

The second is that the meddling was so clumsy.  In the case of Mr. Romanoff, Deputy White House Chief of Staff Jim Messina left an email trail that is very difficult to explain away.

The third is that the meddling was so ineffective.  Neither White House blandishments nor White House threats (if any were made) induced Mr. Sestak or Mr. Romanoff to drop out.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said the president was "unaware" of the overtures made to Mr. Romanoff.  Mr. Obama’s performance at his press conference May 27, at which he professed not to know whether the woman he had appointed to head the Minerals Management Service resigned, or was fired, makes Mr. Gibbs’ statement, alas, plausible.

The president and his senior aides are novices on the national stage.  Some missteps in, say, pursuit of Middle East peace or in response to the oil spill in the Gulf were inevitable.  But these guys were supposed to be good at politics.  The evidence suggests they stink at it.

Consider the photo op in Hyattsville.  When the bad news came in from the BLS that morning, the event could have been cancelled (a ready made excuse would have been to expand his visit to the Gulf), or Mr. Obama’s remarks adjusted so he didn’t sound as if he were living in a parallel universe.  But it didn’t happen.

The fault may be chiefly the president’s.  He doesn’t seem to respond well to changing circumstances if a teleprompter isn’t handy.  But this reeks of bad staff work.

Reasonable people can differ on what the president should have done in the wake of the Gulf oil spill.  But he certainly could have appeared to be doing more.  Mr. Obama’s visit to the Gulf on Friday (6/4) was his third in the 46 days since the crisis began.  When normally friendly journalists point out President Bush had visited the region eight times during the same number of days after Katrina, you have a perceptual problem that easily could have been avoided.

Mr. Obama probably would rather play golf, or talk basketball with Marv Albert, or attend Paul McCartney concerts than do the things presidents are expected to do.  But a president like that needs a staff of handlers, not enablers. 

Is Mr. Obama up to the job?  It’s clear his staff isn’t.

Jack Kelly is a former Marine and Green Beret and a former deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force in the Reagan administration. He is national security writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.