The Thawing

Total hatip to neoneocon.


Obama “the iceman” melteth: but Politico’s Ben Smith hasn’t been paying attention
Ben Smith of Politico seems to think Obama’s getting rattled, and that this has caused a change in the persona he’s showing to the country and the world.
But everything the article describes as new behavior was already in evidence during the campaign—that is, to those paying attention to the details. Obama has always had a tendency to get nasty and emotional, or haughty and dismissive, when pressed—but during the campaign he was rarely ever pressed. As for the trash talk, didn’t Politico see Obama give Hillary the finger, or flick the dirt off his shoulder? Or how about getting acquainted with the ancient history of how Obama got his start against Alice Palmer? Not to mention the fact that Obama’s lack of reaching across the aisle for Republican input began nearly at the start of his presidency, not just now.
This in particular struck me as disingenuous on the part of Obama’s spokesman, as well:
White House Deputy Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer dismissed the suggestion that Obama should be expected to succeed effortlessly – or that he’s on a path toward failure on any of these varied fronts.
“Obama and his team have been down this road dozens of times and been declared dead many times and always succeeded,” he said. “No one gets rich betting against Barack Obama.”
Now that I think of it, perhaps it’s not disingenuous after all; perhaps it just shows ignorance (or denial) of the fact that Obama has never had to succeed at anything political before except for getting elected, and then ingratiating himself with the leader of the Illinois Senate who allowed him to take credit for the work of other people on legislative bills. After that, all Obama really had to do was give speeches and run a campaign.
Granted, he was very good indeed at that. But a campaign and a presidency are different. I am beginning to think that one of the problems with Obama and his advisers is that they actually believe an administration is merely the continuation of a campaign. After all, Obama has never had to face that hard truth before—each office of his has been useful only as a springboard for the next one. The idea that he is now in office for at least four years, with no higher office in sight, and that people may actually for the first time in his life expect him to produce some actual results in addition to lofty words, is very slow to dawn on Obama and the people around him.
They probably think if he bobs and weaves and spins enough, his chickens will never come home to roost. And perhaps they are correct; perhaps the press will stay in his pocket, partly to avoid admitting its own failure to evaluate and vet Obama properly. But there are signs—and the Politico article is one of them—that even the press cannot deny that this man is not what he appeared (to them) to be.