... and that was via videoconference!

The military general credited for capturing Saddam Hussein and killing the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq says he has only spoken to President Obama once since taking command of Afghanistan.

"I've talked to the president, since I've been here [Washington], once on a VTC [video teleconferece]," General Stanley McChrystal told CBS reporter David Martin in a television interview that aired Sunday.

"You've talked to him once in 70 days?" Mr. Martin followed up.

"That is correct," the general replied. [link]

(Note that CBS sticks this, following the "where to put the most important facts" rule of modern journalism, at the end of page 4 of a four page story on Martin's interview with General McChrystal.)

You avoid someone when they represent something unpleasant to you. Given that he'd just appointed him, I don't suspect Obama was already thinking of having McChrystal replaced already. So it appears, despite his former protests that Afghanistan was the important and good war, that he's either been pondering ignoring McChrystal's advice, or cutting out entirely. Does he still think so? Obviously, there's another side pulling at him, hence his delay.

Either way, I suspect the goal will ultimately become, similar to Lyndon Johnson (who also had other issues on his plate), a question of how to lose gracefully (perhaps even slowly), and not have it be clearly his fault.

Jim Hoft throws in a nice ending:

Meanwhile, Barack Obama will fly to Copenhagen this week to support Chicago's bid to stage the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Couldn't Chicago find someone else? And couldn't he just do it, you know, via video conference?