Once again our Tuesday night TV lineup was moved up for another Obama therapy session. No, it’s not for us, it’s for him. Things must be tough.

“WASHINGTON (AP) – What kind of politician brings a teleprompter to a news conference?

A careful one.

President Barack Obama took no chances in his second prime-time news conference, reading a prepared statement in which he took both sides of the AIG bonus brouhaha and asked an anxious nation for its patience.

“There are no quick fixes,” he said, “and there are no silver bullets.”

It’s an interesting dichotomy: Obama came before the nation to sell one of the most expensive and politically risky agendas ever offered by a U.S. president, but his language was heavy with caution. A hard-willed plan given a soft sell.

Served up opportunities to lead with his heart, Obama was cerebral. Cool and calming in a time of white-hot public anger.

“You know, there was a lot of outrage and finger-pointing last week, and much of it is understandable,” Obama said of the bonus issue in his opening remarks. “I’m as angry as anybody about those bonuses that went to some of the very same individuals who brought our financial system to its knees.”

“Bankers and executives on Wall Street need to realize that enriching themselves on the taxpayers’ dime is inexcusable, that the days of outsized rewards and reckless speculation that puts us all at risk have to be over,” the president told reporters and the nation.

But he didn’t look angry. Nor did he sound much like a pitchfork-wielding populist.

“At the same time, the rest of us can’t afford to demonize every investor or entrepreneur who seeks to make a profit. That drive is what has always fueled our prosperity, and it is what will ultimately get these banks lending and our economy moving once more,” he said.

It was a carefully modulated statement, and Obama—relying on a familiar crutch—read it off a flat-screen monitor perched at the back of the East Room.”

Sort of making it up as he went along. What you saw was desperation, but calculated desperation. He was taking both sides of the equation in a calculation to be “right” no matter what.

Instead he came off as cold, and distant. He spoke of generalities, and “feelings”, and other crap that doesn’t help Americans believe he has a handle on the economy, much less his own large-screen enabled words.

Face it, this is ineptness at it’s best and worse. Denial far beyond a river in Egypt, and a clear proof that experience does matter.

As we saw today his poll numbers are plummeting as the public becomes less and less convinced of his ability to lead. Indeed if the election were held today it’s doubtful he’d win, but as Fournier notes, he sure does speak well.

From the teleprompter.