Neil Munro of the Daily Caller was attacked by journalists for asking President Obama a question out of turn -- because Obama wasn't offering a turn. He expects to speak without taking questions. On Thursday, Munro once again found himself surrounded by amateur Obama advisers thinly disguised as objective journalists after Obama lost the debate in Denver.
Munro noted several reporters on the 11:15 a.m. phone conference promptly offered questions that bordered on advice. "Axe, I'm not sure you can hear me, David," said NBC's Andrea Mitchell, "I'm wondering whether the president, whether you have rethought the strategy of not bringing up either women's issues, or the 47 percent or some of the other issues that have worked so well for you in your campaign advertising and in your stump speech?" Other transcripts without the reporter names identified seconded that emotion:
"Do you think that the President missed an opportunity to make the points he made today in Denver, and presumably will in Wisconsin, on that stage in front of a much wider audience?" said a reporter during the event, which took place at 1:15 p.m. MDT, aboard Air Force One...
"Is the president going to be tougher next time? Are we going to see a different -- Axe talked about sort of a shift and looking at strategies. Is he going to be a little bit tougher next time?"
"Was the decision not to mention either Bain or 47 percent a deliberate one? Or was it just a case where time ran out and he might well have raised it had there been another 10 minutes?"
"You said some weeks ago that one of Mitt Romney's strengths as a debater was his willingness to lie with ease. Was the President adequately prepared to call him out on that last night?"
"But did [Obama] go too far, the steadiness, his not being aggressive? Was that an over-compensation perhaps?"
Axelrod said, as he did on television, they would be "holding Romney accountable." No one in the media seems to be holding Obama accountable -- which is why Obama must have appeared shocked that Romney would do so on stage.
