Barack Obama: Remote--and Operating on Remote Control

What we have here is a failure to communicate (and, writes Andrew Malcolm, to lead):

Recall last week when Obama had no teleprompter and staff forgot to deliver his speech to the podium? The most powerful man in the world was speechless, literally. Flummoxed. Improv not his thing. Had no idea what to do or say. Reduced to mocking his own staff. Hilarious video here. 

Turns out though, we now know, Obama might sound good. But he's actually an awful communicator.  

There've been past signs of this weakness: He and the Mrs. are totally tone-deaf to political optics. Thousands die in Japan's double-tsunami; Obama plays golf. The worst environmental disaster in the nation's history hits the Gulf coast. Obama takes days to visit, weeks to address the country, wife goes to Spain on luxury vacation before the family hits Martha's Vineyard for another.  

As unemployment soars and the economy sours, the Chicago crowd parties at the White House with Hollywood glamor pals and bundlers. While three dozen Obama staffers fall a third-of-a-million dollars behind in income taxes. 

Now, comes the first year of Obama's second term and the man Bill Clinton once called "the amateur" is flailing, clearly in over his head.  

Reduced to saying he didn't know about this scandal or that investigation. Imagine how bad the real reasons must be for the President of the United States to publicly admit he's so badly out of the loop in his own administration. At one point he even talked of the Internal Revenue Service as if the department wasn't his responsibility. 

Hello, South Sider. Can you hear me now?...

Probably not. I don't think the mic is on.