President Obama's PR Blunder Is "Purely" His Own Fault Says...White House Official?

Alternate Headline: Presidential Puppeteer Pans "Purely" Personal Poor Presidential Performance

I get the feeling this guy is miffed that the President disobeyed orders to stay out of the victory mosque business:

President Barack Obama’s decision to make public comments Friday that further stoked an already brewing controversy over the construction of a mosque near ground zero was “purely” his own, an administration official said Saturday.

Obama did not reach out to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who, like Obama, supports the rights of the group to build the religious facility, nor did he delve deeply into the details of the plans for the site, the official said.

Rather, the president made a personal decision to wade into a cultural debate that was consuming the nation. He waited to speak out about his views until after a Manhattan board’s decision on whether to let the project move forward, the official said, because he did not want to influence that process.

The White House position on the mosque, via Gibbs last week, was that it was a local issue. That's tied with the other 886 stupidest things he's ever said, but it kept the President out of the line of fire and the Democrats on message, so far as they had a message other than "Bush is teh suxxor."

President Obama, on the other hand, couldn't leave it alone. He wanted to make another historic speech -- this time on Freedom of Religion. Unfortunately for him, few Americans saw it that way and it's turned out to be a PR disaster.

Mr. Unnamed White House Official won't let him forget it.

posted by Gabriel Malor at 07:01 PM

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