Pete, Obama certainly has been butting into nearly every major sporting event since he’s been president. Last summer, we had to “listen to him blathering on with the moron twins, Joe Buck and Tim McCarver” during the all-star game. He insisted on dragging health-care reform into the Super Bowl. And, as you and others have pointed out, it doesn’t appear that he’s really all that devoted to some of the sports in which he has feigned interest.

It is pure ego, one suspects, that keeps him forever on the air. And yet it has, by all accounts, not helped him communicate effectively with the public. He has not persuaded the public of the merits of his key initiatives, and they simply don’t buy his arguments on health care. Despite all the face time, there’s no real benefit, other than the self-satisfaction he seems to derive from showing up and yucking it up with sportscasters who wouldn’t dream of asking him a tough policy question. To the contrary, he’s lost, perhaps faster than most presidents, the aura of the office, which is frittered away when the president is overexposed and, frankly, becomes a bore.

In contrast, one can’t help but remember perhaps the greatest presidential baseball moment in history– the narration (beginning at 5:13) by Fred Thompson is unforgettable. Now that’s a presidential appearance.