photo credit: daveiam

Yesterday was one of those days when the stars aligned just right for Hillary Clinton and terribly wrong for Senator Obama. A memo surfaced contradicting the Senator’s claim that no meeting had taken place between his staff and representatives of the Canadian government, worse it also contradicted his recent tuff talk over NAFTA and helped to put an ever so slight dent in his argument about a return to honesty and openness in government along with a new politics.

It came on the heels of a pretty strong ad released by the Clinton campaign questioning Obama’s ability to manage a crisis, not to mention new details about his relationship with Tony Rezko who was recently indicted for extortion.

You can see video of a press conference held yesterday where the Senator was grilled about these recent developments here. You can also read a recap at MSNBC.

Though there was a lot from the conference perhaps the most telling statement from the Senator came as he was leaving. Reporters began shouting out questions as he exited then Obama turned to the microphone and said:

“Wait, wait guys - come on now! I just answered like 8 questions,”

Here is the video of that moment, one that if I were Clinton or McCain I would pounce on immediately.

I say it is telling because that moment fit so perfectly into the Clinton argument that Obama hasn’t been tested. The press conference was perhaps the first moment I have seen the Senator actually quizzed about so many tuff personal issues in a such a short amount of time. He looked uncomfortable, he seemed agitated and his explanations did not go very far in deflating the issues.

We’ve seen Obama give good speeches, we’ve seen his debate performances get better, we haven’t yet seen him take on the full weight of an endless media grilling that doesn’t last a day but weeks and months. The one argument Clinton makes is a valid one, she has faced media and public scrutiny, perhaps more than anyone, save her husband, in our time. McCain too has faced a career of public scrutiny and tuff questions, not to mention a literal firing squad as a POW and a servant to our country.

If yesterdays conference is not a sign of things to come, if the press goes back to its role of adoring the new commodity for the remainder of the primary, then most of this won’t matter. If the opposite happens, if this does mark a new turn in coverage and the beginning of true scrutiny, then Obama will need to rise to the occasion, improve his performance and start dealing with the press more like a machine and less like a continuation of his stump speech.