Following up from Friday, here was the headline on the Drudge Report:

 Obama apologizes to Nancy Reagan for ‘seance’ crack…

As I predicted, Obama’s mentioning of Nancy Reagan’s astrological proclivities during last week’s press conference turned into a minor blunder. Once the sensitivity police took notice, it was only a matter of time before Obama was forced to apologize to the defuse the situation.

This was a small matter that will quickly be forgotten, but for an incoming President, the lesson is clear: humor, sarcasm, snarky comments, and even mild teasing of others doesn’t get you very far–unless your intended destination is the dog house. Obama was on much safer ground when he said that he wanted to get his girls a “mutt” dog because then it would be more like him. Self-deprecating humor, unfortunately,is the only kind of humor politicians can get away with these days. All other kinds of humor become political landmines–with self-deprecating humor there’s no one to take offense.

Obama showed remarkable restraint in avoiding sarcastic humor during the last 22 months (let’s see if he can teach Biden). But if the new president thinks he can relax now that the campaign is over, he had better think again.