In 2006, Time Magazine Washington Bureau Chief Jay Carney sat down with C-Span and uttered the following prophetic commentary:

"The best press secretaries were very deft at serving both their boss, the President, the Administration, and the press. It's a tricky job. I'm sure I wouldn't be any good at it."

Here we are seven years later, and Jay Carney, Press Secretary to President Barack Obama, has turned out to be a sayer of the sooth.

While he is not as miserable in the job as the worst press secretary in recent years -- the confused Scott McClellan whom the White House press corps dubbed "the piñata" when he labored (and I mean, "labored!") for President George W. Bush -- Carney, as presidential press secretary, is as mediocre as the President he serves.

He is singularly humorless, unsteady and ill-equipped to handle the rough-and-tumble, hand-to-hand combat that has come to comprise the daily skirmish with the White House Press Corps. Lately, as the Obama Administration fumbles its way through multiple scandals, Mr. Carney seems to be getting even less sure of himself and less competent in the job.

Jay CarneyThe best press secretaries – people like Carney's predecessor Robert Gibbs, Mike McCurry, Ari Fleischer and the best of all in recent years, the late Tony Snow – possess certain characteristics that make them invaluable to both their boss and the media through which they convey their Administration's positions, philosophies and programs.

Here are several of those characteristics:

Closeness to the chief.

This is the most important asset for any spokesperson.

"Access is power" goes the public relations truism, and that is certainly the case if one is the mouthpiece of an organization. The closer you are to and more comfortable you are with the individual running the show, the more confidence you will display and speak with when representing that individual in public.

Gibbs was the prototypical example. He served with Obama for four years before being called upon to become White House Press Secretary. Over those first four years, Gibbs and David Axelrod became Sen. Obama's chief counselors. So when Gibbs slid into the press secretary role, the transition was seamless. When he opened his mouth as press secretary, he did so with the full knowledge and confidence that he had the boss's trust. Today, of course, Gibbs remains one of Obama's closest advisors.

Carney, who left journalism to work as a press secretary for Joe Biden, possesses no such closeness to Obama. He is an "outsider" and conducts himself accordingly. Whereas when Gibbs spoke, the White House press corps., knew the words and thoughts were coming directly from the President, there is no such similar confidence with what Carney utters from the podium. He simply isn't an Obama confidante.

Policy knowledge.

A good press secretary must know everything about everything that concerns the organization; even more than his boss.

This entails doing his own due diligence on matters that not only are front-and-center on the national stage, but those lurking behind-the-scenes ready to explode. A good press secretary therefore keeps his own objective counsel and his own internal and external intelligence network.

Snow was a master of this. A former columnist and Fox News anchor, Snow was a well-informed intellectual, who knew his way around Washington, cultivated opinion leaders, and was well-versed on the issues of the day. He was the perfect choice for an embattled Bush, seeking to rescue the credibility of a tattered White House communications operation, headed by the hapless McClellan.

Snow gave full answers to questions, well beyond the "talking points" given to him. And when the press argued with him, he argued back as the Administration advocate he was hired to be.

Carney, by contrast, is a prisoner of his talking points, rarely venturing beyond the precise words approved by the White House brain trust.  As a consequence, Carney seems wooden and inflexible, unwilling to engage in philosophical conversation, lest he annoy the higher-ups.

Typical was his response on Benghazi, citing the still-unsolved murder of four American diplomats as "old news."

Blaming everyone from Fox News to Mitt Romney, Carney told a skeptical press corps, "Efforts to refight the political battles of the past are not looked on kindly by the American people."

While it wasn't clear which "American people" Carney was speaking for, it was clear that the press secretary seemed to be wilting under the multi-scandal scrutiny.

Seat at the table

Hand-in-hand with being a trusted advisor-to the-chief and having policy knowledge, a good press secretary – like any public relations executive – must occupy a seat at the management table.

A seat at the table ensures that the press secretary is aware of the nuances of policy and the discussions that led to policy formulation. This enables him or her to "flavor" responses to the press corps with the proper emphasis and subtlety. Without that seat, the press secretary is prisoner to the person from whom he has received the information. It's that particular aide's interpretation – not necessarily the President's or important others at the table -- that turns out being communicated by the press secretary. Obviously, such a relationship – divorced from the policy level – is far inferior to that of one who is at the table.

In Obama's case,  Gibbs was always at the table; Carney, rarely if ever. And it shows. In a sympathetic profile of Carney on Saturday, Jennifer Steinhauer, of The New York Times asked the press secretary about his fumbling performance on Benghazi. Carney's answer was revealing, "I think we all can look back and find things we could have done better," he said. "But I just know that everybody here who briefed me did their best and did right by me."

Literal translation: He's got no seat at the table.

Arm's length relationship with the press.

The relationship between the press secretary and the media is a tricky one. On the one hand, the press secretary must be a loyal advocate for his employer; on the other hand, he must be an honest broker to the media in conveying Administration philosophy and policy.

Like a corporate public relations executive, a good press secretary is neither friend nor foe to journalists, but rather a "friendly adversary."

The best press secretaries, like Fleischer, McCurry and Gibbs, are experienced public relations hands; the worst press secretaries, like Carney, are former daily reporters.

A good press secretary seeks the "respect" not the friendship of journalists. Reporters may have bridled when Snow challenged them right back on facts and policy, but Snow was universally respected for his knowledge, wit and straightforwardness.

When journalists start "defending" a press secretary, it's a good sign the public relations person is over his head. Such was the case when McClellan was on the rocks, and reporters volunteered what a "nice, well-meaning" individual he was. Similarly, Steinhauer's New York Times piece on the embattled Carney, titled, "Reporter Turned White House Spokesman Enjoys the Hot Seat," was largely uncritical of a press secretary clearly treading water.

Sense of humor.

"If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you....You'll be a man my son," Rudyard Kipling famously said.

And if you're a press secretary, the best way to "keep your head" is to not take yourself too seriously. Of course, the job and the issues are serious and challenging but for god sakes, lighten up a little, have some fun, relax.

McCurry, Snow, and Gibbs understood this, and each was smart and confident enough to maintain their equanimity while walking the daily tightrope with the media. This trait generally plays well on television, which is why McCurry, Snow and Gibbs had no qualms about appearing on the cable and Sunday talk shows to tout their Administrations. By the same token, there's a reason you never see Jay Carney on Fox or "Meet the Press." The Administration, correctly, is more comfortable trotting out more articulate and unruffled "inside players" like Dan Pfeiffer, who impressively carried Obama's water on the scandals this weekend on the morning talk shows.

Last Thursday, after facing a particularly nasty grilling the day before, the normally lugubrious Carney, began the next day's briefing by poking fun at himself with a display of anguished photos of himself from the day before.

Not exactly David Letterman, but hey, it's a start.

(Photo: White House)