Barack Obama was back on Capitol Hill for most of the day on Wednesday, but the headlines he got certainly weren't the ones his staff would have wanted.
Even before Fox News began trumpeting Jesse Jackson's apology for his "regretfully crude" remarks trashing the candidate, Obama was getting another lesson in how the media won't let go once they get the bit between their teeth.
In this case, the media focus was again on the issue of Terrorist Surveillance legislation known as FISA, which the Senate sent to President Bush on Wednesday.
Making the story even more interesting was that Hillary Clinton voted against the bill, while Obama voted for it.
It was a bill that Obama had originally vowed to filibuster, but then he backed off that in recent weeks, aggravating many on the Left, who had thought Obama also hated the idea of allowing telecommunications companies to be immune from lawsuits over their help with warrantless wiretaps of terror suspects.
The NetRoots supporters of Obama weren't happy. Especially when they realized that even Hillary Clinton voted against the bill.
"FISA is just one of the issues Mr. Obama has "refined" is position on," wrote MacJimi on dailykos.
"Looks like he finessed everyone right out their drawers."
Further to the Left at CommonDreams.org, there was more angst over the decision of Obama and Congressional Democratic leaders to support the FISA bill as well.
"It's been quite disturbing to watch them turn on a dime -- completely reverse everything they claimed to believe -- the minute Obama issued his statement saying that he would support this bill," wrote Glenn Greenwald.
"How completely do you have to relinquish your critical faculties at Barack Obama's altar in order to get yourself to think that way?"
Meanwhile, there were a lot of Cheshire Cat smiles on the Right at Redstate.org.
"Barack Obama brazenly lied to them about his intent to filibuster FISA, and they support him anyway. And now they have to go give him some more money, so that he can lie to them some more."
Like I said yesterday, the media loves stories like these. Politician O says he opposes something a few months ago and then votes for it a few months later. Politician O says he'll do one thing on Iraq and might do something later.
I had an interesting conversation with a colleague of mine who works for one of the three-letter networks. Asked about his dealings with the Obama people, he smiled and said, "Those folks are as arrogant as you can get."
It reminded me of how the Clinton people turned arrogant in 1992. It reminded me of how the Bush people got arrogant fast in 2000.
The cycle repeats itself again.
Let's see how Obama's battle for the News Cycle goes in coming days.
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