Obama, Stop Acting Like a Child

Caught up in a Fourth of July celebration, Barack Obama agreed to let his daughters be interviewed on "Access Hollywood," a turnaround from his position on his family's privacy and a big slip-up, writes Maureen Dowd in the New York Times. But Obama compounded the error by expressing morning-after regret so vehemently that it just looked like the latest in a series of flip-flops.

Obama's exasperated looks during the interview, and comments to aides after it aired, show his regret at exposing his family. “We wouldn’t do it again, and we won’t be doing it again," he told Matt Lauer. Perhaps, Dowd suggests, Obama should take a cue from one of his daughter's responses, and stop doing what irks Mommy and Daddy: whining. (More Barack Obama stories.)