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Ragging rights: Guy’s first to get Obama mad

WASHINGTON — Gen. Stanley McChrystal may be dumber than BP’s Tony Hayward when it comes to media strategy, and his powers of judgment might rank down there with Lindsay Lohan’s.

But you got to hand it to the guy for managing to accomplish one thing nobody has ever been able to do: He genuinely pissed off President Obama.

We are talking snapped anger, the kind where you demand that a four-star general fly halfway around the globe on a dime to face a furious and vengeful war council that he has just insulted in the most public, creative and unkind ways.

A rage on the Richter scale we have never seen before from the professorial “no drama” Obama.

Throughout the financial meltdown and discoveries of bailed-out golden parachutes for expired CEOs, Obama kept his icy cool — a steady hand on the rudder of mad government spending.

Through legislative setbacks in Congress, letdowns around the globe and even Olympic losses for his beloved hometown, Obama has pushed on without a blip in his pulse rate.

Even the worst environmental catastrophe in the nation’s history could not get Obama’s anger out of bed.

When, months later, his rage finally emerged into the blinding sunlight, it put on a very poor performance that seemed fake and heartless. As if Obama had read in a psychology book somewhere that threatening to “kick somebody’s ass” conveys anger in the human species.

By comparison, yesterday’s White House briefing was a rage-fest.

Robert Gibbs described getting a copy of the offending article and walking it over to the residence from his West Wing office to personally hand it to Obama.

Gibbs declined to elaborate on the president’s elusive anger except to hint, “You would know it if you saw it.”

Even Gibbs himself appeared barely able to harness his own anger seething just beneath the surface.

It is not exactly the legacy most war generals strive for, but — depending on how things go at the White House today — it may be all McChrystal will be remembered for.