Barack Obama: What kind of leader, really?

Barack Obama likes to project a veneer of executive “presence”. Dean Reynolds, a CBS News reporter with one heckuva lot of courage and candor, suspects that veneer is all there is. To hear Reynolds tell it, Obama — touted as a great multi-tasker — has his hands more than full just managing his campaign and keeping his plane clean. Americans like Camille Paglia, who yesterday wrote:

. . . I still fail to see the connection between McCain’s unquestionably heroic choices under terrible duress and his suitability for the presidency, an administrative post.

. . . might want to kick Obama’s tires a bit more vigorously before signing the purchase agreement. Something big is likely to fall off. (I have no idea why anyone could think the President of the United States is primarily an “administrator,” but that’s another story.)

Consider Reynold’s comparison of Obama and McCain. Which man demonstrates better administrative and leadership skills through actions, not just words:

(NASHVILLE, TENN.) - After most of the previous 12 months covering Barack Obama’s campaign for the presidency, it was interesting, instructive and, well, relaxing to follow John McCain for the last few days. The differences between the two are striking. . .

There is an urgency to the McCain campaign now that I don’t think was there before. Due to the fact that he is running second, no doubt, but it may also be because McCain has a finishing kick. Whatever the case, he is sharper on the stump than he was before. . .

It is true that McCain enjoys taking questions from the audience in town hall-style settings. That doesn’t mean he is the master of that kind of forum, it just means he’s good at it. He likes to converse with voters. Obama does it well too, but seldom achieves that intangible bond with the people that all politicians crave — or fake. . .

Behind the scenes, where the public is not allowed, there are other differences.

Obama’s campaign schedule is fuller, more hectic and seemingly improvisational.

Expect the same from an Obama presidency.

The Obama aides who deal with the national reporters on the campaign plane are often overwhelmed, overworked and un-informed about where, when, why or how the candidate is moving about. Baggage calls are preposterously early with the explanation that it’s all for security reasons.

That “explanation” is called a “lie.” It is intended to make people think the candidate is better organized than he really is.

If so, I would love to have someone from Obama’s campaign explain why the entire press corps, the Secret Service, and the local police idled for two hours in a Miami hotel parking lot recently because there was nothing to do and nowhere to go. It was not an isolated case.

Good question. I think it’s fair to say that we can expect the country to idle and meander without any real sense of purpose — except as imposed by Obama’s radical hangers-on — throughout an Obama presidency. The United States will be a sitting duck, economically and militarily.

The national headquarters in Chicago airily dismisses complaints from journalists wondering why a schedule cannot be printed up or at least e-mailed in time to make coverage plans. Nor is there much sympathy for those of us who report for a newscast that airs in the early evening hours. Our shows place a premium on live reporting from the scene of campaign events. But this campaign can often be found in the air and flying around . . .

Anyone think this might be part of a deliberate effort to restrict the people’s access to information?

. . . at the time the “CBS Evening News with Katie Couric” is broadcast. I suspect there is a feeling within the Obama campaign that the broadcast networks are less influential in the age of the internet and thus needn’t be accomodated as in the days of yore. Even if it’s true, they are only hurting themselves by dissing audiences that run in the tens of millions every night.

I don’t have much sympathy for dissed journalists. Most of them deserve it. But this “dissing” is part and parcel of who Barack Obama is and how he views himself. He is the Alpha and Omega, the healing center of the universe. His agenda — whatever it is — is the most important thing on Earth. Ordinary mortals had better get used to it.

The McCain folks are more helpful and generally friendly. The schedules are printed on actual books you can hold in your hand, read, and then plan accordingly. The press aides are more knowledgeable and useful to us in the news media. The events are designed with a better eye, and for the simple needs of the press corps. When he is available, John McCain is friendly and loquacious. Obama holds news conferences, but seldom banters with the reporters who’ve been following him for thousands of miles around the country. Go figure.

McCain — helpful, friendly, knowledgeable, organized.  Obama — not.  Another symptom of the Obama superiority complex. He’s just too big, too good, too omniscient and too in-the-zone to bother with real people and their petty problems.

The McCain campaign plane is better than Obama’s, which is cramped, uncomfortable and smells terrible most of the time. Somehow the McCain folks manage to keep their charter clean, even where the press is seated.

Strange, isn’t it? How many $$ millions has Obama raked in from all over the world?  Yet he can’t manage to keep a single plane livable?  Why should anyone believe him capable of leading the U.S. out of it’s economic distress? Lots of talk.  Where’s the beef?

The difference the two men: leadership, experience and character. McCain knows that a tight ship is a happy ship whether its a boat, a plane or a country. Obama is clueless or careless.  Either way, he’s a dubious choice in November.

The other day in Albuquerque, N.M., the reporters were given almost no time to file their reports after McCain spoke. It was an important, aggressive speech, lambasting Obama’s past associations. When we asked for more time to write up his remarks and prepare our reports, the campaign readily agreed to it. They understood.

But, compare to Obama:

Similar requests are often denied or ignored by the Obama campaign aides, apparently terrified that the candidate may have to wait 20 minutes to allow reporters to chronicle what he’s just said. It’s made all the more maddening when we are rushed to our buses only to sit and wait for 30 minutes or more because nobody seems to know when Obama is actually on the move.

These same people would follow Obama into the White House. This same chaotic, meandering, interpersonally-challenged bunch would be at the helm of the globe’s leading democracy.

And then there’s ACORN, busy in Nevada, Ohio and who knows where else, lying about who is registered to vote.  Which candidate are they lying for?  The same one who, not so long ago, was an ACORN community organizer.

Think about it. Kick those tires, folks. . . and wait for the clatter.

More from Reynolds at CBS.