Govs. Martin O’Malley and Andrew Cuomo, potential White House contenders both in 2016, offer a study in contrasts when it comes to their media strategy.

And O’Malley’s slip-up today highlights what Cuomo learned during the 2008 Democratic primary, serving to explain why we’ve seen so little of the New York governor in the national press.

O’Malley on CBS’s Face The Nation today was asked whether Americans are better off than they were four years ago.

The Maryland governor responded, according to National Journal: “No, but that’s not the question of this election. The question, without a doubt, we are not as well off as we were before George Bush brought us the Bush job losses, the Bush recession, the Bush deficits, the series of desert wars — charged for the first time to credit cards, the national credit card.”

Cue the Romney campaign’s gleeful response.

A minor pratfall? Perhaps.

O’Malley, a frequent cable and Sunday chat-show guest, has put himself out there as one of the more prominent Obama surrogates and the comment is a bit of an embarrassment on the eve of the Democratic National Convention here in Charlotte.

Cuomo, by contrast, has not been a major talking head for the president, saying only he would campaign for Obama if asked.

In 2008, Cuomo, then the attorney general and a backer of Hillary Clinton’s campaign, made an oblique criticism of Obama, saying, “You can’t shuck and jive at a press conference. All those moves you can make with the press don’t work when you’re in someone’s living room.”

The comment was widely criticized, given the racial overtones.

Four years later, Cuomo has preferred to stay out of the national limelight this election cycle and yet is still talked up as a presidential contender, and so far, gaffe-free.

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