Greta: In these troubling times, Obama needs to be presidential, stop taking potshots at Fox News

Greta: Obama should lead, stop picking fights with Fox News

'Off the Record,' 10/2/14: President Obama likes to play the blame game and blaming Fox News was red meat for his base. But he has to realize he doesn't hurt us and only diminishes his office.

By Greta Van Susteren

Let's all go "Off the Record." When leaders blame others, they sure don't look like leaders. They look absolutely childish.

And it is distressing that President Obama has often been quick to blame others. On Sunday night, he threw the intelligence community under the bus. They are not happy about it and today, he's blaming again.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There's a reason fewer Republicans, you hear them running around about ObamaCare - because while good, affordable health care might seem like a fanged threat to the freedom of the American people on Fox News, it turns out it's working pretty well in the real world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Yes, our turn. Fox News. He has done it before, made cracks about Fox News. Today's crack was also tweeted from Twitter account to 47 million followers. What's the impact on Fox? Zero. The president is giving us free promo, it doesn't hurt us. Fox News is hot. You have seen the latest viewer numbers, but that's not the point.

In these very troubling times, from Ebola to beheadings, we need the president to act presidential. That doesn't mean blaming others or acting cool in front of a bunch of students, blaming Fox for whatever ails him or his administration.

His audience today is the next generation of leaders. We want them to respect the office of the president, not see it as a platform to settle petty scores. Yes, of course, it was only one crack in a long speech. That shows we are getting under his skin. He should be tougher than that.

So as we face down big, big, big problems in the world, skip the trash talk. It only diminishes the office of the president. This that's my "Off the Record" comment tonight.