Perhaps the Obama administration would like some whine with that cheese. Or, at a minimum, a new campaign strategy with its confounding communications plan.

That the Obama White House has a soft spot for criticism comes as no surprise. Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace alluded to as much when he christened the Obama team “the biggest bunch of crybabies” he had ever seen in his 30 years in Washington.

But the White House’s decision to singularly target media opposition (a.k.a. FOX News) ratcheted the rhetorical back-and-forth to near-nuclear levels when Obama Communications Director Anita Dunn levied this blow during an appearance on CNN Sunday morning:

Add to that Dunn’s Thursday Time Magazine quote that FOX simply is “opinion journalism masquerading as news,” and we’ve got ourselves a little ball game. At least, that’s Press Secretary Robert Gibbs’ analogy, who likened Dunn’s lob as a “fastball” intended at keeping FOX from “crowding the plate,” so to speak.

Couple this inexplicable attack with the Obama admin’s bewildering response to the Nobel Peace Prize win (”I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many of the transformative figures who’ve been honored by this prize” — yet, “I will accept this award as a call to action”), and Team Obama has got some explaining to do.

That’s Team Obama, mind you, and not (necessarily) the president himself. There is something to be said for Obama’s all-star “team of rivals’” miscues during the last five days. The perplexing decision to single out the Fox network — a move that only enhances the channel’s legitimacy in the eye’s of Obama’s detractors and can only serve to boost its already dominant ratings — reveals a complete ignorance (a rejection, really) of big picture public relations strategy.

Dare we contribute Obama aides’ negligence in pursuing an entirely counterproductive communications maneuver to inexperience? No, let’s not be fooled: the Obama seige on Fox News was an undeniably coordinated and effectual PR move…if the White House’s target audience was the left-wing blogosphere, which has had its fair share of issues with the president of late. But why ignore the potential long-term benefits of a truly original and mature response to the Nobel/Fox dramas in favor of appeasing a vocal, critical, intraparty minority over a presidency-defining, Palin-esque, “no one saw that coming, but you know what, that’s kinda gutsy” moment?

Ross Douthat is right:

Such a “mistake” may turn out to be a boon in the short term. Who doesn’t get warm and fuzzy feelings from watching an American win one of the world’s highest honors?

However, the real weight around Obama’s neck will come in the 2010/2012 GOP campaign ads mocking Obama’s international superstar status in the midst of a still-souring job market and slow economic recovery. As Democratic strategist Joe Trippi envisions them: “He got a Nobel Prize. What did you get? A pink slip.”

And thus, the message has been muddied. Despite some positive progress on health care reform this week and a myriad of near-boiling foreign policy crises waiting to be addressed, the Obama administration is content to lower itself to epically low levels. You know it’s bad when even liberals are calling the president “Whiner-in-Chief.”

Best to leave the partisan, below the belt attacks to the organizations and individuals whose sole function is the smearing and sensationalizing of Democrat’s political opponents (DNC, Media Matters, Keith Olbermann). It’s time the Obama communications department do itself a favor, get their hands of the mud, and focus on the pertinent matters of governance.

At the very least, do it for Glenn.