I’m starting to wonder if it’s intentional

President Obama’s no dummy. He’s intelligent and he’s educated. He’s from Chicago.
Is he purposely throwing softballs?

President Obama: Well, what‰s happened is that President Calderon I think has been very bold and rightly has decided that it‰s gotten carried away. The drug cartels have too much power, are undermining and corrupting huge segments of Mexican society. And so he has taken them on in the same way that when, you know, Elliot Ness took on Al Capone back during Prohibition, oftentimes that causes even more violence. And we‰re seeing that flare up.

Obama talking to CBS’s Bob Schieffer [Via Scott Morgan]
He’s got to be smart enough to know that talking about prohibition and Capone is just going to lead to talking about ending prohibition. Drug policy reformers have set that up for the past few years by heavily promoting the word “prohibition” in conjunction with the drug war. I even did some promotion of the Capone connection. A lot of people are going to make that connection.
Is he stupid? Is he brilliantly devious? What’s going on, here?