Is Obama losing the New York Times?

Check this lede out: [Link]

President Obama emerged from Hawaiian seclusion on Monday to reassure the American public and quell gathering criticism as a branch of Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the thwarted attack on an American passenger jet on Christmas Day.

Seclusion. Wow. And...

The president broke his silence as debate about the episode turned increasingly political. An assertion over the weekend by Janet Napolitano, the homeland security secretary, that “the system worked” drew strong criticism and forced her to recalibrate it on Monday.

And she retracts under the increasingly flimsy excuse "it was taken out of context". Right.

Meanwhile, Ms. Napolitano, who had made the rounds of television talk shows on Sunday, appeared on NBC’s “Today” show to try to clarify her statement that the nation’s aviation security system had worked properly.
Ms. Napolitano said that her remark had been taken out of context and that the attempted attack in fact represented a failure of the security system. “Our system did not work in this instance,” she said. “No one is happy or satisfied with that.”
In one of her Sunday appearances, Ms. Napolitano had said the system worked once the attempted bombing occurred, meaning that the government responded by increasing security and alerting other planes. But she did not qualify her point in another of her appearances, and it seemed incongruous given that the suspect was able to fly to the United States on a valid visa without extra screening despite having been listed in a terrorism database and buying a one-way ticket with cash and without checking any luggage.
Administration officials said that during a weekend conference call they had resolved to use the Sunday shows to reassure the public, but that the “system worked” formulation was not in written talking points. “Clearly she could have been more clear, and I think she was today,” said one administration official, who declined to be identified discussing internal strategy.
The visual contrast of a president on vacation while there was anxiety about air travel also drew fire. Although aides issued statements describing conference calls with counterterrorism advisers, pictures of passengers enduring tougher airport screening were juxtaposed with the image of the president picnicking at the beach and playing basketball, tennis and golf.