Allow me to stipulate one final time: I believe President Obama should have gone to The Valley, along the border with Mexico, to see first hand the humanitarian crisis unfolding down there.

Why? Because I believe a demonstration of presidential presence there could be of some benefit. I cannot exactly measure it, but he needed to go.

OK, so he didn’t. It’s not the end of the world.

What is most striking, though, has been the criticism of his no-show from the conservative media, namely the gasbags at the Fox News Channel.

Fox’s main gasbag, Sean Hannity, was quite critical of the president’s photo op appearance in October 2012 in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. Other Fox News talking heads have gotten all revved up over White House photo ops showing the president meeting with physicians and with military personnel.

https://www.facebook.com/Mediamatters/photos/pcb.10152203928506167/10152203927696167/?type=1&theater

Why, they just couldn’t understand why the president would stoop to such grandstanding in front of TV cameras.

This week, it’s different. They cannot understand why he failed to do the very thing for which they have criticized him.

I don’t recall getting all worked up in 2005 when President Bush flew over New Orleans rather than walking among the storm-soaked wreckage brought by Hurricane Katrina. I suppose it would have been better for the president to hug a few necks and to tell stricken victims that their government was behind them — just as President Obama did on the Jersey Shore in 2012.

However, let’s be consistent, you folks in the conservative mainstream media. The least you can do is stay on message. If a photo op isn’t worth doing in one instance, then keep your traps shut when the object of your scorn decides it’s not worth doing at another time.