Katie Couric's Freudian Slip About Obama's 'Learner's Permit'

April 13th, 2009 1:29 PM

Sticking up against those ol' playground bullies on the Right, CBS's Katie Couric tells conservatives in a recent blog post to " give the new kids on the block" in the Obama administration "a chance to get their learner's permits first."

Not exactly the wisest choice of words from an Obama-friendly journalist, particularly when a heavy drumbeat of criticism against him in the presidential campaign was that it unwise to trust the presidency to a man who would need "on-the-job training."

From her April 9 Couric & Co. post at CBSNews.com (emphasis mine):

Did former Vice President Dick Cheney cross the line when he said the Obama administration has made America less safe in the brief time they've been in office?

[...]

Politics is a rough and tumble sport. After all, then Senator Joe Biden called Mr. Cheney the worst vice president in history when he was out on the campaign trail.

These barbs sound more like the rhetoric of radio talk show hosts than elder statesman.

We should never shy away from insightful criticism. And in the white hot spotlight of the presidency a fair amount of back seat driving simply comes with the territory.

But it's fair to give the new kids on the block a chance to get their learner's permits first.

That's a page from my notebook. 

Something tells me that properly handling rogue states like Iran and North Korea are weightier matters than mastering parallel parking and remembering to use the turn signal.

But that's just a page from my notebook.