About as sycophantish as Rachel Maddow.  She opened her MSNBC show last night with a long segment lavishing praise on PBO’s media skills, hailing him as the “President of All Media.”  But when you break down his supposedly brave and brilliant performances, they consisted of:

1. Avoiding tough questions by going into super-soft settings; and/or
2. Some serious mistakes and gaffes.

Let’s review:

1. Maddow began by contrasting O’s “super efficacy” in the media with that of W, who she suggested appeared only before “hand-selected loyalist crowds.” She claimed Pres. Obama’s California “town hall meetings” were “unscreened, and that he took questions that were “uncensored, not pre-approved, not pre-screened.”  Did Rachel actually watch those “unscreened” townhalls? If not, may I commend my item on the Costa Mesa one to her?  As she’ll hear in the video there, the crowd screamed like pre-pubescent girls at a Jonas Brothers concert, chanted O-BA-MA, and asked not one tough question.  Maddow seemed to think the fact that not one AIG question came up was a great thing.  I’d say it might have been evidence of the very screening Maddow claimed not to have existed.

2. Maddow next tried to portray Pres. Obama’s appearance on Leno as another daring Daniel-in-the-lion’s den act.  Pres. Obama took AIG questions “not just from reporters,” but from Leno.  How brave, to dodge the likes of Jake Tapper to go on with the warm ‘n fuzzy Leno, who has said of himself: “I’m not conservative. I’ve never voted that way in my life.”

Sample exchange:

LENO: Now it’s only, what, 59 days now, right?”

PBO: Yes, 59 days.

LENO: And so much scrutiny. Is it fair to judge so quickly?

Tough stuff!

And again, Maddow got herself into “Mrs. Lincoln, other than that” territory, praising PBO’s Leno performance without mentioning his Special Olympics gaffe that dominated most of the coverage–except hers.  Maddow even undercut her own case about PBO’s courage, mentioning that the studio audience had “camped out for 10 hours for the possible privilege of sitting in the same room with him.” Did anyone hear anything but cheers and applause from them? Sure sounds like the kind of “loyalist” crowd she had condemned W for appearing before.

3. Maddow was next impressed by the fact that PBO “also managed to find the time to send out a big email blast to his campaign supporters.”  Yes, PBO surely composed the email himself on the back of an envelope and personally typed in all those millions of email addresses. How does this amazing man do it?!

4. Next, “he also found time to fill out an NCAA bracket on ESPN.” Another softball [roundball?] appearance, with ESPN’s Obama-friendly Andy Katz.  Even so, well-respected [outside Chapel Hill] coach Mike Krzyzewski was widely quoted suggesting PBO would make better use of his time tending to the economy. Not exactly an unalloyed media succes for the prez.

5. Maddow was also impressed that PBO “found time to call into Ed Schult’z radio show.” The guy who’s reportedly vying to join MSNBC as part of its PBO-loving lineup? That Ed Schultz?  Another profile in courage by the prez!

6. Finally, Maddow praised PBO video message in honor of the Korwuz holiday celebrated in Iran and many other countries in the region.  She called it “nuanced and savvy.”  Yeah. So nuanced and savvy that in the version intended for Iran, PBO arranged for the prominent American flag in the original version to be cut out.

All Hail The President Of All Media!