No laughing matter

Come to think about it, there was a whistling-past-the-graveyard quality to much of President Barack Obama’s “60 Minutes” interview Sunday with CBS’ Steve Kroft. You know, the nervous kind of laughter where the laugher actually is trying to camouflage real concern about what lies beneath.

Kroft had Obama laughing about a number of economic-related items, including the shelf life of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who’s stepped in more potholes recently than a road worker. As Obama laughed off the notion Geithner was in some political trouble, Kroft, looking bewildered by the president’s mirth, asked him if he was “punch drunk.”

Maybe Obama’s not nervous. Maybe he should be. Yukking it up with Jay Leno last week and then adopting a what-me-worry? pose on “60 Minutes” seemed a little tone deaf to the public’s souring mood.

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