The Freshman President...

...or living with FactCheck.org in real time.

It has been a rough week for the President. The message has gotten away from him a few times.

It's not like the days as a community organizer where you were selling a dream with no regard for the truth. Your job was to draw a crowd and create a photo-op. The real work followed with the folks who had to make something viable out of your promises.

As a state senator you never rose very high and others put THEIR names on the bills. And if things got tough you could simply vote "present" and preserve your image.

In the U S Senate it was much the same since you weren't there very long. They lobbed you a couple of easy ones to create a record to run on.

And on the campaign trail your success was measured by the applause-o-meter.

But now you have hit the big time.

You can't always control the message. Like when you say that Caterpiller can now begin hiring again now the stimulus package has been approved...only to have the CEO stand up and tell the world there will be more lay-offs first.

Or you go out of your way to pick a Republican for Commerce and he has the nerve to have second thoughts. (Was that a set-up all along? I doubt it. Strategy and GOP are total strangers.)

I can't wait for you to sit down with foreign leaders. They really have minds of their own!