Appearing before a roomful of newspaper editors and publishers in Washington today, Barack Obama began with a slight (some might say strained) joke about the coverage he generated over the last couple of days because of his now so-well-known comments about small-town America.

As he was wrapping up, he had to parry a stumble by one of the nation's leading news executives, who conflated his name with that of a certain terrorist.

If he's not in the best of humor at the moment (despite his effort at jesting), it's easy to understand why.

Taking the podium at the annual meeting sponsored by the Associated Press, Obama slyly noted that he had "kept a lot of you guys busy over the weekend." He added, with a trace of a smile, that "some of you might even be a little bitter about that."

Polite laughter greeted the play on words (and Obama himself surely knows the brouhaha that continues to rage about him is no laughing matter for his political prospects).

In his speech, Obama made clear -- as he has repeatedly the last few days -- that he would welcome a debate with presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain over "elitism." And he had some mild scolding for the media, saying the propensity to get "caught up in the same cycle of political silliness" distracts from a serious focus on the nation's problems.

"We feed on controversy. We feed on conflict," he told his crowd. "It's not that interesting to say, 'I disagree with the guy, but I see his point.' "

Then came a brief Q & A, highlighted by a gaffe by William Dean Singleton, chairman of the AP board of directors and head of ...