NBC correspondant Andrea Mitchell held no punches in her criticism of the Obama campaign’s staged nature from an interview with Chris Mathews:

MITCHELL: Let me just say something about the message management. He didn’t have reporters with him, he didn’t have a press pool, he didn’t do a press conference while he was on the ground in either Afghanistan or Iraq. What you’re seeing is not reporters brought in. You’re seeing selected pictures taken by the military, questions by the military, and what some would call fake interviews, because they’re not interviews from a journalist. So, there’s a real press issue here. Politically it’s smart as can be. But we’ve not seen a presidential candidate do this, in my recollection, ever before.

Mitchell then adds more in response to Mathews’ query about the overall atmosphere:

MITCHELL: I can’t really say that. Being a reporter who was not present in any of those situations, I just cannot report on what was edited out, what was, you know, on the sidelines. That’s my issue. We don’t know what we are seeing

This has been a criticism of Obama for some time that he is not accessible to reporters. He rarely takes questions, if ever, and sticks to teleprompters. He’s scheduled to have a presser with Gordon Brown in England.

Its becoming clear that Obama knows he does not do standard Q & A settings well at all. He failed miserably on Fox with his interview with Major Garrett after the Reverend Wright story broke. Contrast this with John McCain who is having another town hall meeting now in New Hampshire.