During an impromtu press conference on board his campaign plane, Democratic Presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) insinuated that the media got caught up in his opponent’s rhetoric and criticisms about his inexperience.   As a result, he said, the media hammered him with questions, challenged him to ‘reject’ and ‘denounce’ his relationship with Minister Louis Farrakhan and pushed him to be more specific about his position on NAFTA.

At the same time, Sen. Hilary Clinton (D-NY) used the post-Austin debate experience to secure appearances on Saturday Night Live, The Daily Show and most of the weekday morning talk shows.  Well, Sen. Obama, welcome to the world of big league politics.   Instead of whining about the media, it’s time to start using it – just like the Clinton Machine.

Politicians are always quick to ‘blame the media’ when things don’t go as they want.  Clinton has even done her fair share, accusing the media of treating her unfairly because she’s a woman. Politicians are always quick to question ‘the media’s’ motives.  Grant it, the media has not had a good run on credibility over the past several years, but for Sen. Obama and the rest of his ilk, there’s no successful strategy in accusing the media of your shortcomings.

For Sen. Obama, it’s time for him to modify his approach.  He needs to scale back his massive ‘Si Se Puede’ rallies, and start doing as much local TV and radio as possible. He should go to neighborhoods and knock on some doors. How about Philadelphia or Scranton, PA for starters.  If he’s going to be the ‘president of the people’, start showing it and not telling it.  He should encourage citizen journalists to follow you as you reach out to the people and illustrating your ability to reach voters in a way no other candidate has.  His media team needs to set up a series of one-on-ones with Mike Wallace, Chris Wallace, Bill O’Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Chris Matthews, Tim Russert, Charlie Rose, John Roberts, Brian Williams, Charlie Gibson and Katie Couric. Let them challenge him with all the questions Clinton and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) are going to throw at him.

The result: National media feeds off each other’s one-on-one interview; local media will cover the ‘buzz’; citizen journalists will start posting your people-to-people tours on youtube.com, myspace.com, facebook.com  .

That’s controlling the media – not blaming it. If Obama plans on winning the Democratic nomination, he has to leave the blame game back at home and take his campaign directly to the people and to mass media.

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