About Last Night: Obama's Prime-Time Presser Fails to Impress

Even liberal-leaning Howard Fineman, appearing on MSNBC with Rachel Maddow after President Obama's prime-time press conference Wednesday, noted that the president seemed "tired" and that, more importantly, "I don't see what he got out of it."

If liberals were hoping for a home run from a charismatic and forceful leader, they were disappointed.

Frankly, I was expecting Obama to pull out all the rhetorical stops and apply some real public pressure to red-state Democrats. That obviously didn't happen -- possibly because if he pulled out all the stops to pass a health care reform bill before the recess, and it failed, he would look weak. So he tried to go down the middle, giving a perfunctory talk. He seems to be hedging his bets.

My guess is the real arm-twisting will take place behind closed doors. We know Obama recently met with the CBO director -- and that he is meeting with "blue dog" Democrats. They will have to decide whether fealty to the president's agenda is worth more than their reelection in 2010. A tenuous majority can be more curse than blessing.

One can assume Obama's goal Wednesday night was to go over the heads of the media -- which are too concerned about such "trivial" things as CBO scoring -- and talk directly to the American people. Ronald Reagan could have done it. Bill Clinton could probably have done it, as well. But last night, Obama was mediocre -- at best.

He hit his usual talking points: Insurance companies are the villains. Only millionaires will have to pay for it. He "inherited" a bad economy. Republicans are misrepresenting the plan, etc.

But he did not scare many Democrats, or inspire or motivate many Americans. It was not a "come to Jesus" moment for recalcitrant Democrats, who -- as NBC's Chuck Todd noted -- have 60 votes and do not need Republicans to pass the bill.

To be sure, Obama will follow up his performance with more health-care-related events. Getting out from behind the podium would probably help -- so look for more town-hall-esque formats.

Regardless, there are signs that Obama's team realizes the press conference may have fallen flat. Senior advisor David Axelrod made the rounds on the morning shows. To be sure, he keeps his cards to his chest, but he appeared to be backtracking a bit from the August deadline.

It's still early, but there are signs (and polls) to indicate that Obama is losing influence, and the words of Yogi Berra are starting to ring true: "It gets late early out there."