Obama is the most critiqued president in American history.

[Drunken Irishman]

It isn't just because he's black, though I think that's part of it (Obama, being the first black president, is expected to comment on every news event involving a black person - whether Henry Louis Gates, Trayvon Martin or Michael Brown). Certainly no one ever asked Bill Clinton to speak about Susan Smith or George W. Bush with Andrea Yates. So, in that regard, Obama has to step up to the plate every time and almost always his response angers someone. He angered the right with his comments on Prof. Gates and Martin and, yes, some on the left with his comments today about Brown.

But Obama's critiques go beyond just race - it goes to the root of the dynamics of being president in today's world. No president had to deal with Social Media quite like the President. Even Bush, for a good chunk of his presidency, wasn't under the social media microscope quite like Obama.

In 2006, Myspace led the social media game - with 100 million users. Today, Facebook has 1.1 billion. Twitter has 645,750,000.

Instagram, Vine and other platforms have gone mainstream. It only takes but a few seconds for Obama to say something and reach nearly the entire globe - and many of those people won't actually hear him say anything because today's generation hardly watches television news.

It allows for criticism and praise - but also unfiltered reaction without the benefit of 'wait and see'. It wasn't that long ago the instant reaction was minimal. When the federal building in Oklahoma City was bombed, the internet was in its infancy, so, people couldn't take to the blogs and twitter to blame the President for it or speak of conspiracies. They were forced to wait things out - nothing was instant.

Obama doesn't have that luxury. Neither will whomever replaces him. Instead, everything he says and does will instantly be discussed by over a billion people in real time - and not just in the confines of their homes. Twenty years ago, you couldn't get your feelings on a situation out to 1,000 people instantly. Now, you can tweet and have it reach millions within hours.

Is this bad? I don't know. But it does offer an interesting contrast and helps explain why so much is different under Obama than even Bush. Twitter and social media has changed the game more than anything since, really, television ... and it makes it infinitely easier to critique the president without even needing the benefit of waiting and seeing.

I think Obama was dinged a bit last night for not speaking. I saw it. But in the end, his words resonated and helped. He did the right thing. 24 hours ago, though, a lot of people were convinced he hadn't and that drove the critique and the attacks and that has been a constant theme under the Obama presidency since he arrived.

It's unfair, I think, and specifically a result of the social media frenzy.