Culled from Phil Rosenthal, from the Chicago Tribune.

Obama, who has always marched to the tune of his own iPod when it comes to media and message, has been everywhere. On Sunday alone, he has five one-on-one news-show appearances set to run, which might not be unprecedented for Brangelina but is for a sitting U.S. president.

Apparently, the address to the nation with a speech to a joint session of Congress didn’t drive the talking points home hard enough. Neither did the one-on-one interviews with “60 Minutes,” CNBC, Bloomberg News and Men’s Health magazine, where he offered his 12 life lessons.

So Obama is doing ABC News’ “This Week With George Stephanopoulos,” CBS News’ “Face the Nation With Bob Schieffer,” NBC News’ “Meet the Press With David Gregory,”CNN’s “State of the Union With John King,” as well as an interview for Spanish-language Univision. The 15-minute interviews were all to be taped Friday at the White House.

Yes, Obama is bypassing Fox News Channel, although arguably its audience is the one that needs the most selling on the president’s views, his programs and the president himself; and Fox Broadcasting, which ran the season premiere of “Glee” rather than his address to a joint session of Congress earlier this month.

True.  But it’s either pissy, or a fumble.

Chris Wallace, the sad little step-sister who didn’t get the interview with Obama, isn’t very happy about it either, calling the administration “The biggest bunch of crybabies (he) has dealt with in his 30 years in Washington.”

Well, I sort of have to agree.  Not with the “crybaby” part – Fox may claim to be “Fair and Balanced” and maybe their news is, but their pundits – the people that do 99% of the talking and then wrap their “balanced news” around them – are so partisan and right it’s impossible to go “Hey, that one minute where they talked about Cap and Trade seemed pretty fair!”

That being said, Democrats and Independents watch Fox News – not just Republicans.  These are the people that can, and have been, swayed against him in the last few months.  Why not walk into the lions’ den, give Pouty McWhiney balls his 15 minute interview and move on?

Why not show that you have more courage to meet “the enemy” than the enemy has shown you?

Yes, you are controlling the message on the other five channels.  But guess what?  Those people have already made up their minds.    The people you need to talk to are people who are getting their “information” from the likes of Beck and Hannity and O’Reilly, etc.

You need to show fearlessness in the face of demagoguery.

And it can’t be for fear of them breaking whatever journalistic rules:  The fact that you’re still going on ABC after they shot an off-the-record Tweet about Kanye West kills that rationale.

So, basically, it’s sour grapes.  Which is fine.  You can’t dispute the fact that Fox News has it in for Barack Obama.  That they will be branding themselves between now and the 2012 election as the people you can turn to when you want wingnut conspiracy theories, thinly veiled race-baiting, and lunatic spin.

They don’t like Obama, and the feeling is clearly mutual.

But (I could be wrong, but read somewhere)  half of the people who WATCH Fox News might still be inclined to support the guy.  Half are Dems and Independents – or at least claim to be.  By not going on Fox NEws to talk about Health Care (or Afghanistan or Missile Defense or whatever), Obama has made some of this discussion… about Fox News.

Which makes his decision not to appear another Summer/Fall misjudgment.