President Obama has been doing interviews with local television stations for months now in the hopes  of getting softer questions than he might speaking to network anchors. But that didn’t help him one bit yesterday in Orlando while speaking to the local NBC affiliate.

Here, very much reminiscent of President Carter’s “malaise” remarks, President Obama inexplicably says that America has gone “soft.” (Did the words of a handler stick in his head: “Don’t worry, Mr. President, these will be all softball questions? Who knows?)  Regardless of why he said it, he said it, and it’s going to hurt him. 

It will be interpreted as President Obama blaming America — read Americans — for the failures of his administration. Whether he meant it that way or not, that will be the takeaway. 

“Soft” may end up being the new “malaise” — if the GOP candidates properly exploit the gaffe.  In any event, we can expect to hear the word a lot between now and November 2012.