What started out as a spat has now turned into a full blown lovers’ quarrel. He doesn’t talk to us. He won’t spend time with us. He misled us. Yes, as detailed in this vivid account, Barack Obama is now openly feuding with the media, which (strangely enough) thinks he should answer more questions about Tony Rezko and what Austan Goolsbee was whispering in the Canadians’ ears (notice the highly contrived and very old-school tactic Obama employed in an effort to make the dispute about who called whom first).

The most telling part of the report is that, after the food fight with the media, Obama did not feel comfortable enough to come back to the press people on the plane to discuss their concerns. After all, he answered a whole eight questions from the media. What do they expect? That he’ll stay there like any other candidate and answer every question they have?

Lacking McCain’s easy-going and established rapport with the press, Obama now cannot venture into the lion’s den without risking another mauling. I think Howard Wolfson has finally achieved his goal: getting the press energized and willing to go after Obama. Worse yet, as Dana Millbank notes, “The questioning . . . has only just begun.”