Media 101 with Professor Obama

Barack Obama likes to talk about his years teaching constitutional law, so we are happy to stipulate the fact that he has the professor shtick down pretty well.

Recently, however, he has switched subjects, preferring instead to lecture on the finer points of media and politics in front of an audience that’s about as captive as it can be.

Standing in the aisle of his campaign plane this week -- cabin doors bolted, engines running -- Obama scolded reporters for going all squishy on rival Hillary Rodham Clinton.

“There’s no doubt Sen. Clinton went very negative over the last week,” said Obama, whose winning streak had just broken with a loud snap.

“The kitchen-sink strategy I’m sure had some impact, particularly in a context where many of you in the press corps had been persuaded that you had been too hard on her and too soft on me,” he said.

“Hopefully now people feel like everything’s evened out and we can start actually covering the campaign properly,” Obama continued. “I haven’t said that you guys have been too hard on me. I’m just saying that you guys may have bought into the notion that you were being too hard on her.”

In case you were wondering, everyone took notes.