Romenesko notes that when the legendary White House reporter said it yesterday afternoon at The Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, the crowd gasped:
“I was the interviewer and it rocked me a little,” writes Phil Bronstein [link]. “In the same conversation Ms. Thomas said ‘Nancy Reagan was a heroine in my opinion,’ expressed tender sympathy for Lyndon Johnson and great respect for Gerald Ford.”
John Aravosis adds that having such criticism come from the left “does not position Obama to the middle, as some in the White House might hope. No president is helped when pundits start, and keep, discussing whether or not he’s afraid to do his job.”